(Doug the Bartender) Noel Joseph Allain is the Founding Artistic Director of the Bushwick Starr Theater. New York credits include [Porto], Heartbreak, the food was terrible, On a Clear Day I Can See to Elba, Jericho, Luft Gangster, Queerspawn , Motel Cherry, How Much Is Enough, The Wife, Sa Ka La, Tender, and Now That Communism is Dead, My Life Feels Empty. Regional credits include Asher in My Name Is Asher Lev (Cleveland Playhouse), Tom in The Glass Menagerie (Arizona Theater Company), Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (Playmakers Rep), and Transition with Reggie Watts and Tommy Smith (On the Boards). Awards: Indie Theater Award for Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role for Luft Gangster and Xammie for Best Male Actor for The Glass Menagerie. TV: Blue Bloods, Law and Order:SVU, Damages, Guiding Light. FILM: The Outpatient, Marcy, InContact TRAINING: Juilliard
(Raphael the Waiter) Ugo Chukwu‘s Recent credits include Today is My Birthday (Page 73), Ripcord (Huntington Theater in Boston), Adventure Quest (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), [PORTO] (Bushwick Starr) and Minor Character: Six Translations of Uncle Vanya at the Same Time (New Saloon; NYIT award winner – BEST ENSEMBLE). Ugo has also been in numerous readings, and workshops with various companies such as Target Margin, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater, The Flea, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, The New Group, EST, and more. BFA at Brooklyn College. www.ugochukwuactor.com
(Hennepin) Theater: Porto (Bushwick Starr, upcoming: Women’s Project/New Georges), Universal Robots (Gideon Productions/Sheen Center), Lady Day (The Little Shubert), Family Play: 1979 – Present (Collaboration Town), Bonedive Scrounger (The Brick). Television: “Seven Seconds” (Netflix, Fall 2017), “Blue Bloods” (CBS), “Madame Secretary” (CBS). Film: “The Visit”.
(Dry Sac) Off-Broadway: The Harvest (LCT3); Pocatello(Playwrights Horizons); Porto (Bushwick Starr). Regional: Miller Mississippi (Dallas Theatre Center); Residence (Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival); Appropriate, The Whale, We Are Proud to Present…(Victory Gardens Theatre); Buena Vista, The Glass Menagerie, The Hot L Baltimore (Steppenwolf Theatre); The Diary Of Anne Frank (Writers Theatre); The Commons of Pensacola (Northlight Theatre); 4000 Miles (Long Wharf Theatre); Punk Rock (Griffin Theatre); Ten Chimneys (Milwaukee Repertory). Film/TV: Chicago Med; Patriot; Olympia.
The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award-winning nonprofit theater that presents an annual Season of new performance work. We are an organization defined by both our artists and our community, and since 2007, we have grown into a thriving theatrical venue, a vital neighborhood arts center, and a destination for exciting and engaging performance. We provide a springboard for emerging professional artists to make career-defining leaps, and we are a sanctuary where established performance companies come to experiment and innovate. Our past Seasons have included new work from groundbreaking artists such as The Mad Ones, Clare Barron, Dave Malloy, The Debate Society, the TEAM, and Half Straddle.
“The work they program is boldly experimental. It’s also a lot of fun… a bright spot on the Off Off Broadway map” – New York Times
“A home for gutsy experimental work.” – 2012 Village Voice OBIE Award for Outstanding Work
“Brooklyn’s hottest incubator. One of New York’s best-curated off-off venues.” – Time Out New York
New Georges, founded in 1992, is a strategically small theater company with a national reputation as a productive home and launchpad for exuberantly theatrical women artists – individually, as collaborators, and as a community. We cultivate our boundary-pushing aesthetic in a nimble, artist-driven production environment: committing to projects early on, equipping them with processes rooted in strong collaborations, and providing steady artistic support. We serve and sustain the largest ongoing working community of women theater artists in New York City — more than 200 playwrights, directors, actors and designers – with premiere productions; play and artist development programs (such as the New Georges Jam and the Audrey Residencies); and The Room, our permanent workspace and the year-round hub of our activities. Our 22-year commitment to providing our artists with free or low-cost workspace in The Room is unique among small theaters and has incubated thousands of new plays.
Honors for New Georges, our plays and our people include 3 Obie Awards, the Lilly Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn and Kesselring Prizes. And the influx of New Georges artists into the field over the last 25 years has had marked impact on the representation of women nationwide in theater, film, television and arts education.
(Playwright) is currently a resident playwright (w/ Mike Lew) at Ma-Yi Theater as part of the Mellon National Playwright Residency. She is also a 2017 HBO Access Fellow. Additional honors include: 2016 Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop fellow at the Lark, 2016 Lilly Award (Stacey Mindich “Go Write A Play”), Rhinebeck residency with collaborators Sam Willmott and Mike Lew for Bhangin’ It, TCG Fellowship with New Georges. Productions: Soldier X (Ma-Yi; Brooklyn College; 2015 Kilroy); Lonely Leela (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center); Barriers (Desipina and Asian American Theater Company). Commissions: NNPN/InterAct for Neighborhood Watch; E.S.T./Sloan for Particles of Pakistan; La Jolla Playhouse for The Colonialism Trilogy (w/ Mike Lew); NYSCA/Lark for Soldier X; Kennedy Center commission (w/ Mike Lew.) MFA: Columbia University; BFA: NYU Tisch.www.rehanamirza.com
(Director) is a Brooklyn based director, writer, and educator. Recent projects include Utopia, Minnesota by Meg Miroshnik (2016 Sagal Fellowship, Williamstown Theatre Festival), That High Lonesome Sound (Actors Theatre of Louisville; 2015 Humana Festival) and We Are Proud To Present A Presentation… by Jackie Sibblies Drury (InterAct Theatre Company), And If You Lose Your Way, or A Food Odyssey (Invisible Dog). Her productions of The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane by Jen Silverman (InterAct Theater Company) and In The Blood (Theatre Horizon) together received a total of fifteen Barrymore Award nominations, including Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Overall Production. She has directed/developed work at The Public, New York Theatre Workshop, Ars Nova, Soho Rep, Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theater Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Rising Circle Theater Collective, Woodshed Collective (The Tenant: Best of 2011, L Magazine), Partial Comfort, Noor Theatre, Rising Phoenix Rep, HERE Arts Center, New York Musical Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Wild Project, Dixon Place, Living Theatre, Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, Juilliard, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cleveland Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Geva Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Two River, Milwaukee Rep, On The Boards, Perseverance Theatre, Berkshire Fringe Festival, Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, and Hangar Theatre, where she was a 2006 Drama League Directing Fellow. M.F.A. in Directing from Columbia University, (Shubert Presidential Fellow). Current and upcoming: Mad Forest by Caryl Churchill (Columbia), Veil’d by Monet Hurst-Mendoza (Astoria Performing Arts Center), The Invisible Hand (Cleveland Playhouse). Member, SDC. www.pirronne.com
(Playwright) plays include Le Jeté, Stargaze, The Sun Experiment (FringeNYC 2014 Award for Excellence in Playwriting; Time Out New York’s Top Ten Music and Nightlife Events of The Week, published by IndieTheaterNow), and The Day Is Long To End. Her short plays have been commissioned by the 52nd Street Project, UglyRhino, and Culture Project. Her short play “A Sand Romance” was a 2016 Heidman finalist. Her poem “To the Movement” was featured in a recent Planned Parenthood fundraiser. She has been a NYTW Emerging Artist of Color and Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab writer, a 2016 NYSCA/NYFA Playwright Fellow, and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. She is currently working on a play set in Mexico City and a libretto for a Chinese opera. BA: Stanford University. MFA: NYU.
originated the role of Georg in Tony and Grammy Award winning musical Spring Awakening. Astin was most recently onstage in Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s God Bless You Mr. Rosewater at Encores! Off-Center at New York City Center. Earlier last year he starred as Tony in Carnegie Hall’s special production of West Side Story at the Knockdown Center. In film, Astin is best known for his break out role as Jesse in Universal’s Pitch Perfect and sequel Pitch Perfect 2. Other film credits include: Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, Sundance favorite Hamlet 2, Disney’s award winning animated feature, Wreck-It Ralph, and starring opposite Miles Teller in 21 and Over. Astin will next appear in Eric Bress’s Ghosts of War and the feature film Hot Air. He can currently be seen opposite Nick Nolte in the Epix TV series “Graves.” Previous television credits include the lead in sitcom “Ground Floor”, created by Bill Lawrence, and memorable roles on: HBO’s “Girls”, Fox’s “House M.D”, “Glee”, and AMC’s “Halt and Catch Fire.”
Emmy Award-winner and Golden Globe nominee Marg Helgenberger was last seen guest starring on the CBS series, “Under The Dome”. In Fall 2016 she starred in the Arena Stage production of The Little Foxes Stage in Washington DC. In Spring 2014 she was starring in the Barrington Theatre Company’s production of The Other Place. Prior to that she costarred in the CBS drama series “Intelligence“, also starring Josh Holloway. In 2013 she ended her twelfth season of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” for which she has earned two Emmy nominations. The critically acclaimed show airs Wednesday nights at 10:00PM on CBS and is executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Her character, Catherine Willows is a single mother working as a crime scene analyst on the graveyard shift in Las Vegas.
Marg was seen starring alongside Kevin Costner in MGM’s psychological thriller Mr. Brooks, about a man who occasionally falls under the spell of his murderous alter-ego. She costarred with Julia Roberts in the Universal hit drama, “Erin Brokovich”, as a woman dying of cancer due to a contaminated water source. Marg also starred as Patsy Ramsey in the highly rated CBS miniseries, “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” based on the best selling book about the unsolved murder of Jon Benet Ramsey.
co-starred opposite Jared Leto in the hit Warner Bros feature Suicide Squad, reuniting him with director David Ayer for whom he co-starred in Columbia’s award-winning feature Fury alongside Brad Pitt and Shia LeBeouf. Jim will next be seen in the independent feature films Tatterdemalion and Priceless. On stage, Jim received rave reviews as “Slim” alongside James Franco and Chris O’Dowd in the multi-award-nominated 2014 Broadway revival Of Mice and Men for director Anna D. Shapiro. Jim co-starred in the independent feature Wild Horses opposite Josh Hartnett and Robert Duvall (who also directed) and earlier co-starred opposite Duvall in the dramatic feature A Night in Old Mexico. Jim starred opposite James Franco (who also adapted and directed), Logan Marshall-Green and Tim Blake Nelson as “Cash” in As I Lay Dying, based on the novel by William Faulkner (2013 Cannes Film Festival). He was featured in the cult feature Child of God, also directed by James Franco, and costarred opposite Franco in Disney’s Annapolis, directed by Justin Lin. Previously, Jim co-starred opposite Aaron Eckhart and Michael Pena in Sony Pictures’ Battle of Los Angeles, directed by Jonathan Liebesman. Jim is probably best known for his award-winning turn as fan favorite “Hoyt Fortenberry” in HBO’s hit series “True Blood.” He also played the title character “Guy Hastings” in a memorable episode of the Fox series “Alcatraz” for J.J. Abrams/Bad Robot, starred in a season-long arc on ABC’s “Resurrection” and was seen guest starring on the NBC series “Blacklist: Redemption.”
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.
