(Performer) Anna Bass, Associate Artistic Director/Performer, has worked with MBB&CO since 2003, performing all over the country on stages ranging from public fountains and city parks to comedy clubs and Carnegie Hall. Anna wears the grey suit in Happy Hour, tours the country with Monica and Ira Glass in Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host and juggles many of MBB&CO’s day-to-day operations. She also served as company Rehearsal Director, Assistant Choreographer for productions at The Atlantic Theater, The Public Theater and Yale Repertory Theater and a roller-skating mouse alongside comedian Mike Birbiglia in This American Life’s The Radio Drama Episode at the BAM Opera House. Anna hails from Forest, Virginia, where she studied almost every dance style from classical ballet to country line dancing. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
(Lighting Designer) Jane Cox has designed with MBB&CO for more than a decade, and her collaboration with the company is central to her creative life. In 2014 Jane was nominated for both the TONY and the Drama Desk awards for her work on Machinal, and she also designed All The Way on Broadway. In 2013 Jane was awarded the Henry Hewes Design Award for her work on The Flick. Other recent designs in NYC include Picnic and Dinner with Friends for the Roundabout, Passion at CSC and The Whale at Playwrights Horizons. Opera designs include Sydney Opera House, Houston Grand Opera and New York City Opera. Jane has a long-standing relationship with The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and has been teaching about light and design at Princeton University since 2007.
(Set/Costume Designer) Kelly Hanson is an original company member of MBB&CO, and has been collaborating with Monica since 2001. She is also an Emmy-nominated Art Director for television. Kelly currently spends most days directing art for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Kelly was born in Bryan, TX, earned her MFA in Set Design at University of California, San Diego and joined the New York community in 2001. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, two children and a big black dog.
(Host) Robert Saenz de Viteri has been working with MBB&CO and Ira Glass since 2013. He began working in theater as an audio script assistant to Anna Deavere Smith while she developed Let Me Down Easy. He has created performances and toured productions throughout the world with the Obie Award winning Nature Theater of Oklahoma. As a director in New York he has worked at the Ensemble Studio Theater, The Flea, The Atlantic Theater, Office Ops, and Access Theater where he directed the NYTimes Critic’s Pick production of Michael & Edie. In 2014 he joined Ira Glass and This American Life producing Episode 528, “The Radio Drama Episode” live on stage at BAM. He recently created The Spiritual Life of Modern America, based on Knut Hamsun’s mostly unread book of the same title and the experiences of many people moving to America. The show premiered at the Brageteater in Norway.
Monica Bill Barnes & Company is a contemporary American dance company that brings dance where it does not belong. We create and produce each work entirely from its own rulebook—dancing to radio interviews on the biggest stages in the world, hosting a weekly show in a crowded office party, or leading a choreographed exercise routine in an art museum. Within each of these new contexts and borrowed environments, we constantly find humor in our awkward, everyday triumphs and failures. The company consists of a team of collaborators – Artistic Director/Choreographer, Monica Bill Barnes; Associate Artistic Director/Performer, Anna Bass; designers Kelly Hanson (Set/Costume) and Jane Cox (Lighting); and the newest company member, Robbie Saenz de Viteri (Creative Producing Director). Together, this team creates the most unlikely experiences for every kind of audience. MonicaBillBarnes.com
Gibney Dance, founded in 1991, is a trailblazing organization whose mission is to bring the possibility of movement where it otherwise would not exist. Through three interrelated fields of action—Center, Company, and Community Action—Gibney Dance is “Making Space for Dance” in studios, on stages, and in underserved shelters and schools. GibneyDance.org
The Joyce Theater. founded in 1982, was created by dancers for dance. Today, The Joyce is considered one of the premiere performance venues for dance and attracts an annual audience of more than 140,000. Since its inception, The Joyce has welcomed over 270 New York City-based, national and international dance companies to its stage. It would be difficult to imagine the dance world today without The Joyce Theater. In addition, The Joyce now oversees DANY (Dance Art New York) Studios, eleven affordable studios, located at 38th Street and Eighth Avenue, that are appropriate for rehearsals, auditions, classes and workshops. Joyce.org
(Playwright) Martyna Majok (pronounced “my-oak”) was born in Bytom, Poland, and aged in Jersey and Chicago. Her plays have been performed and developed at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, LAByrinth Theatre Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Women’s Project Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The John F. Kennedy Center, Dorset Theatre Festival, New York Stage & Film, Yale Cabaret, The Playwright and Director Center of Moscow, Round House Theatre, Satori Group, Red Tape Theatre, and The LIDA Project, among others. Awards include the inaugural Women’s Invitational Prize at Ashland New Play Festival, Marin Theatre’s David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, Aurora Theatre’s Global Age Project Prize, National New Play Network’s Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, Jane Chambers Student Feminist Playwriting Prize, and The Merage Fellowship for the American Dream. Commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Marin Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The New Yorker website, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Foundry Theatre. Publications by Samuel French and Smith & Kraus. Residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Fuller Road, and Ragdale. BA: University of Chicago; MFA: Yale School of Drama. Martyna is currently part of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwright Program at The Juilliard School. She has taught playwriting at Williams College, Wesleyan University, SUNY Purchase, and as an assistant to Paula Vogel at Yale. Alumna of EST’s Youngblood. Member of Women’s Project Lab, Ars Nova’s Uncharted, The Dramatist Guild, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Usual Suspects. Martyna was the 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence at NJRep. She is the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center.
(Director) Daniella Topol’s previous WP Theater productions include: Cori Thomas’ When January Feels Like Summer, Jessica Dickey’s Row After Row, Sheila Callaghan’s Lascivious Something, Trista Baldwin’s Sand. Recent productions include: Rachel Bonds’ Five Mile Lake (South Coast Rep), Jessica Dickey’s Charles Ives Take Me Home (Rattlestick Theatre) Rajiv Joseph’s Monster at the Door (Alley Theatre), Lloyd Suh’s Jesus in India (Magic Theatre and MaYi Theatre), Carla Ching’s Sugarhouse at the Edge of the Wilderness (MaYi Theatre), Willy Holtzman’s The Morini Strad (City Theatre), Sheila Callaghan’s Dead City (New Georges) and Janet Allard and Niko Tsakalakos’ Pool Boy (Barrington Stage Company), Anna Ziegler’s PHOTOGRAPH 51 (Theatre J), Susan Bernfield’s STRETCH (People’s Light and Theatre Company). She has directed readings and workshops for a number of companies and is currently a member of the board of the Lark Play Development Center, has been a grants review panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NY State Council on the Arts and TCG. She is an NYTW Usual Suspect, member of EST, a Women’s Project Lab alumnus, and a New Georges affiliated artist. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.
(Maks) Josiah Bania is thrilled to be making both his Rattlestick and New York City theatre debut. Regional credits include the world premiere of Ironbound, at Round House Theatre, Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Three Sisters at Yale Repertory Theatre; Loves Labour’s Lost at Chautauqua Theatre Company; The Secret in the Wings, at Yale Summer Cabaret; The History Boys at Artists Repertory Theatre; The Uneasy Chair at CoHo Theater; A Christmas Carol, and JAW: A Playwright’s Festival at Portland Center Stage. Television credits include “The Good Wife”, “Leverage”, and “The Mysteries of Laura”. Josiah holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where he appeared as Iago in Othello, Bolingbroke in Richard II, Medvedenko in The Seagull, and Nolan in Petty Harbour.
(Vic) Shiloh Fernandez grew up in the small Northern California town of Ukiah. He moved to Los Angeles and has been in several major motion pictures and television productions. He’s proud to be making his New York stage debut in Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre and WP Theater’s premiere of Ironbound.
(Darja) Marin Ireland is a highly acclaimed actress of stage and screen. She stars opposite Corey Stoll in the independent feature GLASS CHIN, a performance for which she’s nominated for a 2016 Independent Spirit Award. She was recently seen in the indie film, THE FAMILY FANG, which debut at the Toronto Film Festival, and other recent film credits include THE PHENOM, BOTTLED UP, and 28 HOTEL ROOMS. This past year, she starred in the NBC miniseries THE SLAP, in addition to recurring roles on HBO’s GIRLS and Showtime’s MASTERS OF SEX. She will next star in the Amazon series, SNEAKY PETE. Tony Award nominated for her performance in Neil LaBute’s REASONS TO BE PRETTY, Marin recently received rave reviews for her performance in Lincoln Center Theater’s play KILL FLOOR and starred on Broadway in Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of THE BIG KNIFE, opposite Bobby Cannavale.
(Tommy) Morgan Spector Broadway: Machinal, Harvey, A View From the Bridge. Off-Broadway: Russian Transport (New Group, Drama Desk Nomination). Regional: Dissonance (Bay Street Theatre), The Lion King national tour, Enemies: A Love Story (Wilma Theatre). Television: Series Regular: “The Money (pilot),””Allegiance”, “The Broad Squad” (pilot), “Paradise Pictures (pilot). Recurring: “Boardwalk Empire,” “Person of Interest,” “Zero Hour,” “Law & Order: CI,” “How to Make It in America.” Guest Star: “Orange is the New Black,” “Do No Harm,” Film: Permission, The Bleeder, Christine, Split, The Drop, All Is Bright, Grand Street, Musical Chairs, Burning Blue, The Last Airbender. BA, Reed College; MFA, American Conservatory Theatre.
(Playwright) SARAH BURGESS‘s play Dry Powder premiered at the Public Theater this March. Dry Powder was a recipient of the 2016 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, and a finalist for the Blackburn prize. Other plays include Camdenside (Ground Floor selection, Berkeley Rep; Kilroys List 2015) and FAIL: Failures (ANT Fest). Writer for The Tenant (Woodshed Collective) and “Naked Radio,” Naked Angels’ podcast series. Burgess has been a writer-in-residence at SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Cape Cod Theatre Project. Member of the WP Lab; Ars Nova Play Group alum.
(Producer) Pearl Hodiwala is from Sydney, Australia and has a background in development, fundraising and producing and theatre management. Pearl has worked as Philanthropy Coordinator at Belvoir Street Theatre, and Producing Fellow at The Public Theater. Currently, Pearl is Strategy and Business Development Coordinator with Disney Theatrical Productions and Managing Director of Kaimera Productions (www.kaimeraproductions.com). Selected works: Jupiter (a play about power) (La Mama), The Fall (Flamboyan Theatre) and Underland (59E59). Member of the Women’s Project Producers Lab 2014-2016. Bachelor Arts and Science from Sydney University and Masters of Arts Administration from Columbia University.
(Playwright) Monet Hurst-Mendoza is a New York-based playwright from Los Angeles, CA. Her plays have been developed with Rising Circle Theater Collective, |the claque|, Lookingglass Theatre, The Oneness Project, The Other Mirror, The Kupferberg Center, #serials@The Flea, Amios (Shotz!), and Playwright’s Playground at Classical Theatre of Harlem. She is the current Playwright in Residence for The Other Mirror, and a member of the 2016 inaugural Mitten Lab in Detroit, |the claque|’s Octo-Group, the 2017 Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, and the 2014-2016 Women’s Project Lab Time Warner Foundation Fellow. Proud member: Rising Circle Theater Collective, and |the claque|. B.A.: Marymount Manhattan College.
(Producer) Rachel Karpf works with artists and cultural institutions to produce theater and live performance pieces that inspire, delight, and move audiences. Recent works include Todd Almond and Courtney Love’s Kansas City Choir Boy (ART/Beth Morrison Projects) and Jay Scheib and Keeril Makan’s Persona (M.I.T & National Sawdust/Beth Morrison Projects). As Associate Director of Page 73: Clare Barron’s You Got Older, directed by Anne Kauffman (2 OBIE Awards, 4 Drama Desk Award noms., Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist); George Brant’s Grounded, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll (Drama Desk Award nom.); Cori Thomas’ When January Feels Like Summer, directed by Daniella Topol (co-produced with EST). With the Institute for Psychogeographic Adventure, she has produced large-scale site-specific performance adventures including in the Brooklyn Museum (BEAT Festival), PRELUDE, Stony Brook University, and throughout the DUMBO neighborhood. For 13P: Lucy Thurber’s Monstrosity, Julia Jarcho’s American Treasure, and Madeline George’s The Zero Hour. Other projects at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theater Workshop, and the Commonwealth Theatre. Creator of the lecture series Saloon; grant review panelist for NSYCA and others. BA: Dartmouth College. rachelkarpf.com
(Director) Sarah Krohn’s directing credits include Horse Girls by Jenny Rachel Weiner (the cell), The Pits by Joshua Harmon (Williamstown Theater Festival), You Remind Me of You by Matthew Capodicasa (Fordham/Primary Stages), The Next War by Kate Mulley (Columbia Playwriting); Parade (Yale Dramat), and Victor Frange Presents Gas, which she co-conceived with Dan O’Neil (Incubator Arts). Member of the 2014-16 Women’s Project Theater Lab, Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab and Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab; recipient of Williamstown Theater Festival’s Sagal Fellowship; co-facilitator of the New Georges Jam writer/director group. Graduate of Columbia University (BA) and Carnegie Mellon (MFA). www.sarahkrohn.com
(Producer) Kristen Luciani currently works in general management at DR Theatrical Management. She is also an independent producer and formerly served as Associate Producer to Elizabeth I. McCann. Kristen has previously worked with The Public Theater and Playwrights Horizons. Independent credits include: Judith (Kraine Theater) and We Declare You a Terrorist (Summer Play Festival). As Management Associate to Liz McCann and Joey Parnes, Broadway credits include: Hair, The Merchant of Venice, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Kristen is also the co-founder and Executive Producer of Paradox Productions, a boutique Executive Producing and General Management firm (www.paradoxprods.com). She holds a BFA in Theater/Producing from NYU-Tisch School of the Arts.
(Playwright) Martyna Majok (pronounced “my-oak”) was born in Bytom, Poland, and aged in Jersey and Chicago. Her plays have been performed and developed at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, LAByrinth Theatre Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Women’s Project Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The John F. Kennedy Center, Dorset Theatre Festival, New York Stage & Film, Yale Cabaret, The Playwright and Director Center of Moscow, Round House Theatre, Satori Group, Red Tape Theatre, and The LIDA Project, among others. Awards include the inaugural Women’s Invitational Prize at Ashland New Play Festival, Marin Theatre’s David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, Aurora Theatre’s Global Age Project Prize, National New Play Network’s Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, Jane Chambers Student Feminist Playwriting Prize, and The Merage Fellowship for the American Dream. Commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Marin Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The New Yorker website, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Foundry Theatre. Publications by Samuel French and Smith & Kraus. Residencies at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Fuller Road, and Ragdale. BA: University of Chicago; MFA: Yale School of Drama. Martyna is currently part of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwright Program at The Juilliard School. She has taught playwriting at Williams College, Wesleyan University, SUNY Purchase, and as an assistant to Paula Vogel at Yale. Alumna of EST’s Youngblood. Member of Women’s Project Lab, Ars Nova’s Uncharted, The Dramatist Guild, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Usual Suspects. Martyna was the 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence at NJRep. She is the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center.
(Producer) Liz Olson is a freelance producer and the General Manager/Line Producer of Tectonic Theater Project (Carmen, The Tallest Tree in the Forest, Uncommon Sense). Previously, she was the Managing Director of Studio 42, where she produced Ken Urban’s Wasps and worked on productions of Bekkah Brunstetter’s Miss Lilly Gets Boned and Gregory S. Moss’s Billy Witch. In the past, she has worked at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, NYTW, Playwrights Realm, and Two River Theater Company. She is the producer for Reentry, which tours US Naval bases as part of their soldier reintegration training. This brings her full circle in life as she is a third generation Navy brat who now produces theater for the Navy. Freelance includes Couriers and Contrabands and Be A Good Little Widow. She holds an MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management from Boston University and a bachelor’s from The College of William and Mary.
(Playwright) Riti Sachdeva is a theatre maker, dancer, and cultural worker. She has developed work with the Public Theater, The Civilians R&D Group, PlayWrights Center, National New Play Network, University of Hawaii Asian Theatre Program, American Theater Company, Working Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Works, and Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. Her play Parts of Parts & Stitches received The Kennedy Center’s Quest for Peace award. She is a recipient of a TCG On the Road grant and recently traveled to Kerala, India to start adapting elements of Kathakali to her stage play Other Farmers’ Fields. Acting highlights include work with DisneyChannel, HBO, various awesome indie films, National Hispanic Cultural Center, MTWorks, Honest Aaccomplice, EarSay, Hybrid, and performances of her original works with MidNites cHiLd Productions in LA, Toronto, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and NYC. Riti continues to write, act, and study her beloved flamenco.
(Playwright) Susan Soon He Stanton’s plays include Takarazuka!!!, Today Is My Birthday, SEEK, The Things Are Against Us, Cygnus, The Underneath, and more. Her plays have been produced or developed at Clubbed Thumb, East West Players, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theater Workshop, Kennedy Center, The Flea, Washington Ensemble Theater, Joe’s Pub, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and others.
She is a two-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient. Writing groups and residencies include Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group, Playwrights Center Corewriter, SoHo Rep Writer-Director Lab, Lark Van Lier Fellowship, Hedgebrook, and MaYi Playwrights Lab. Other awards include Southern Rep’s Ruby Prize Runner-up, Susan Glaspell Prize Finalist, Kilroy’s List, a Susan Smith Blackburn nomination, and a NET Partnership Grant with Satori Group. She is a writing consultant for Disney Creative Entertainment. She received a Feature Film Development Grant from the Sloan Foundation. Films include Dress, Dispatched, Good House, and Same Will. BFA: NYU Tisch, MFA: Yale School of Drama.
(Producer) Rachel Sussman is a New York-based producer committed to nurturing diverse work through creative collaboration. She serves as the Director of Programming for The New York Musical Theatre Festival and is a co-founder of The Indigo Theatre Project as well as The MITTEN Lab, a new emerging artist residency in her native state of Michigan. Rachel has worked with such companies as Second Stage Theatre, 321 Theatrical Management, RKO Stage, Goodspeed Musicals’ Mercer Colony, Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, The Tony Awards, and CREATE-Ireland in Dublin, Ireland. Producing credits include: Talk to me about Shame (FringeNYC, Overall Excellence Award), Lemon Cake (133rd St. Arts Center), The Imaginary Menagerie (Joe’s Pub), and, most recently, The Woodsman (59E59 & New World Stages). She is currently developing a new musical with composer/lyricist Shaina Taub. Rachel is a trustee for The Awesome Foundation NYC and sits on Advisory Boards for The Musical Theatre Factory and Strangemen & Co. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute and a University Scholar alumna of NYU Tisch.
(Director) Danya Taymor is a director and translator. Recent work includes Brian Watkins’ Wyoming (Lesser America) and My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer (The Flea), Anna Moench’s In Quietness (Dutch Kills/Walkerspace) and Wildrose (Sheen Center/The Claque), Lucy Teitler’s Engagements (Ensemble Studio Theater), I Hate Fucking Mexicans (The Flea) Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Shakespeare’s The Tempest (NYU/Stella Adler). She is a 2014-2016 Time Warner Directing Fellow at Women’s Project Theater, a 2005 fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, an Artist in Residence at Theatre for a New Audience, an Associate Artist at The Flea Theater, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a Visiting Artist at Strasberg/NYU and an alumna of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and The Drama League. Upcoming work: Sarah Gancher’s The Place We Built (The Flea) and Justic Kuritzke’s The Sensuality Party (The New Group). BA: Duke University
