(Director) Tamilla Woodard is a theatre director working nationally and internationally. Currently, she is serving as the Artistic Director of The Five Boroughs/One City Project, a multi-year initiative of The Working Theater. The project supports the commissioning and development of 5 Playwright/Director teams working in collaborations and creating theatrical works in response to and inside of working class communities in all 5 boroughs. She is co-founder of PopUp Theatrics, a partnership creating site specific and immersive productions and collaborations around the world.
She is a current Time Warner Directing Fellow at the Women’s Project Theater Lab, a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, alumnus of The Lincoln Center Directors Lab and former Audrey Fellow at New Georges. She graduated from The Yale School of Drama’s Acting program and is the recipient of The Josephine Abady Award from The League of Professional Theatre Women and The Charles Bowden Award from New Dramatists. Her work has been presented and developed at the Working Theater, NYTW, New Georges, HERE, The Lark, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, PS122, DR 2, The Culture Project, Urban Stages, Dance Theatre Workshop, The Kitchen Theatre and for festivals and theater’s around the US and Internationally.
Most recent work includes: A Midsummer Nights Dream, NY Times Critics Pick, Cherry Smoke by James McManus and La Ruta, by Ed Cardona Jr, for Working Theater, NYC- NY Times End of Year List of Notable productions. For PopUP: Broken City: Harlem, a site specific commission by The Harlem Arts Festival. Long Distance Affair, a Skype immersive performance with editions in Romania, Argentina, Mexico, Scotland and the US; INSIDE, a site specific production with editions in Bucharest and Madrid. Upcoming: The Block, by Dan Hoyle, Working Theater, Harbur Gate, by Kathleen Cahill, Salt Lake Acting Company and Broken City: Wall Street, PopUP Theatrics.
(Playwright) Sarah Ruhl’s plays include The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Clean House, Passion Play, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando, Late: a cowboy song, Dear Elizabeth and Stage Kiss. She has been a two-time Pulitzer prize finalist and a Tony award nominee. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, off-Broadway at Playwrights’ Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country, often with premiers at Yale Repertory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Goodman Theater, and the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago. In 2014 she was the second most produced playwright in the country. Her plays have also been produced internationally and have been translated into over twelve languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn award, the Whiting award, the Lily Award, a PEN award for mid-career playwrights, and the MacArthur “genius” award. You can read more about her work on www.SarahRuhlplaywright.com. Her book of essays 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write was published by Faber and Faber last fall. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama, and she lives in Brooklyn with her family.
(Director) Kate Whoriskey most recently directed Lynn Nottage’s Sweat at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other productions include Ping Pong and Manahatta at the Public through Public Studio, Ruined and Tales from Red Vienna at Manhattan Theatre Club, How I Learned to Drive at Second Stage, The Piano Teacher at the Vineyard Theatre, Oroonoko at Theatre for A New Audience, the world premiere of Fabulation and Inked Baby at Playwrights Horizons, and Massacre by Jose Rivera at the Labyrinth Theatre Company (of which she is a member). Internationally, she directed Magdalena at the Chatelet theatre in Paris and Teatro Muicipal in Sao Paolo. Regionally, she directed Ruined, Vigils, Heartbreak House, The Rose Tattoo and Drowning Crow for The Goodman, The Tempest at Shakespeare Theatre, the world premiere of Intimate Apparel, The Piano Teacher, Life is a Dream, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Antigone, and The Clean House at South Coast Repertory, and Master Builder at the American Repertory Theatre. Nominated for a Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel for her work on Ruined, she has also directed at the Huntington, The Geffen, Baltimore Center Stage, Perseverance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Sundance Theatre Lab, The Fisher Center and The Eugene O’Neill Center.
(Robert) is thrilled to once more share the stage with Cherry Jones after playing her husband in Jon Robin Baitz’s play, The Film Society, directed by the late Roger Rees, at The Williamstown Theater Festival in 1997. David had the great fortune to work with Sarah Ruhl in 2008, when he performed in the Playwrights Horizons production of her play Dead Man’s Cell Phone. He is honored to work again with these extraordinary artists. David attended Illinois State University, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas – Austin and a diploma from The Julliard School.
(Elizabeth) Becky Ann Baker is most recognized for her mothering skills, or lack thereof, on two Judd Apatow series, “Freaks and Geeks” and “Girls”, where she plays creator Lena Dunham’s mom, and for which she received a Critics Choice nomination. But Becky has appeared on Broadway in both musicals and plays, including Good People, All My Sons, Assassins, Titanic, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Her Off-Broadway credits include: Barbecue at the Public Theater, Suddenly Last Summer for The Roundabout; Comedy of Errors, Othello and Two Gentlemen of Verona for New York Shakespeare Festival; Wonderful Town for City Center Encores; The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told for New York Theatre Workshop; Shanghai Moon and June Moon for Drama Dept.; Durang, Durang for Manhattan Theatre Club; To Whom It May Concern and Laura Dennis at the Signature; The Vagina Monologues at Westside Arts; and more. Becky has performed regionally at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she is an artistic associate, the Old Globe, the South Coast Rep, Arena Stage, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey and the Goodman Theater in Chicago. Film credits include “The End of the Tour,” “23 Blast,” “Hope Springs,” “Nights in Rodanthe,” “Spinning into Butter,” “Stay,” “The Night Listener,” “Gretchen,” “War of the Worlds,” “Two Weeks Notice,” “A Simple Plan,” “Celebrity,” “Men In Black,” “In and Out,” “Sabrina,” “Unstrung Heroes,” “White Squall,” “Lorenzo’s Oil,” and “Come See the Paradise.” Other TV appearances include: “Gotham,” “Madam Secretary,” Person of Interest,” “Elementary,” “The Good Wife,” “Smash,” “Black Box,” “A Gifted Man,” “Kings,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Mercy,” “Storm of the Century,” “Soul Man,” “Ruby Ridge,” “Frasier,” “Star Trek: Voyager,” “Sex and the City,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Oz,” and “Mind Games.” She is a member of the Actor’s Studio, Drama Dept. and Usual Suspects –NYTW. Becky’s best and favorite production: Willa, co-produced with actor/director Dylan Baker.
(Elizabeth) BROADWAY: Angels in America (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Racing Demon, Dance With Me. OFF-BROADWAY: Wit (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Connecticut Critics Circle, and Obie Awards), A Walk in the Woods (Drama Desk nomination), Tales from Red Vienna, Miss Ovington & Dr. Dubois, Somewhere Fun, Red Dog Howls, Painting Churches, Talking Heads (Obie Award), Vita & Virginia, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Spalding Grey: Stories Left to Tell, Bloomer Girl, Nine Armenians (Drama Desk nomination), Far Away, Twelve Dreams, Henry V (Callaway Award). OTHER NY CREDITS: The Vagina Monologues, True History and Real Adventures, Phaedra in Delirium, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Endgame, The Party, Sister Mary Ignatius…, The Investigation of the Murder in El Salvador. LONDON & LOS ANGELES: Ovation Awards for both Wit and Red Dog Howls. SELECT REGIONAL THEATRE: McCarter, Berkley Rep, Guthrie, Yale Rep, Long Wharf, Yale Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Mark Taper Forum, ATL, Sundance Lab. FILM: Isn’t it Delicious?, R.I.P.D., The Bath, In Bed With Ulysses, Lillian, Duplicity, The People Speak, Lackawanna Blues, Perfect Stranger, The Last New Yorker, Second Guessing Grandma, Dark Water, Kinsey, Laramie Project, Random Hearts, A Price Below Rubies, Murder and Murder. SELECT TELEVISION Recurring on “The Affair,” “The Strain,” “The Americans,” “House of Cards,” “Rescue Me,” “The Book of Daniel,” “The Guardian,” “Jo,” “Law and Order” and “One Life to Live”; also “Madam Secretary,” “Forever,” “Heartbreaker,” “Elementary,” “Mercy,” “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” (HBO), “Benjamin Franklin,” “Lackawanna Blues” (HBO), “Georgia O’Keeffe” (Lifetime), “Voices from the White House” (PBS), “A Death in the Family” (PBS), “Storm of the Century”. AWARDS: 1996 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence, 2004 Lortel Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance, 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Professional Women. She has received the Drama League and Sidney Kingsley Awards for her body of work and holds an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Cooper Union.
(Robert) is a writer, composer, librettist, musician, performer and director. His Opera / New Music Theatre productions have toured throughout America and to major theater festivals in Europe and Asia. Eckert began his career as a writer and performer in the 1980’s, writing librettos for Paul Dresher (Pioneer, Power Failure, Slow Fire, Ravenshead). He composed dance scores for choreographers Sarah Shelton Mann and Margaret Jenkins, including the evening-length Woman, Window, Square for The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Rinde began composing and performing his own music/theater works in 1992 with The Gardening of Thomas D, an homage to Dante which subsequently toured the United States and France. Staged works for solo performer include Becoming…Unusual: The Education of an Eclectic; three one-act plays: An Idiot Divine, Romeo Sierra Tango and Quit This House; and works for radio including Shoot the Moving Things and Four Songs Lost in a Wall. Writing credits for the theater include Highway Ulysses, Horizon, Orpheus X, And God Created Great Whales, which has been produced three times with the original cast and director, for a total of 227 performances. And God Created Great Whales, Horizon and Orpheus X have run off-Broadway, garnering Drama Desk Nominations and the Lucille Lortel Award. Rinde has received numerous honors and awards for his body of work. In 2012 he was named an inaugural Doris Duke Artist, was honored to receive the 2009 Alpert Award in the Arts for Theatre, a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship, and The American Academy of Arts and Letters 2005 Marc Blitzstein Award. In 2007 Rinde Eckert was the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Eckert wrote the text and performed in the multi-media production Slide with composer/guitarist Mackey and the new music ensemble 8th blackbird, which toured to major university campuses and the Ojai Festival. Renamed Lonely Motel by Cedille Records, the project won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance. Eckert and Mackey are members of BIG FARM, a ‘prog-rock’ super group with drummer Jason Treuting (So Percussion) and bassist Mark Haanstra. Rinde Eckert’s own uniquely eclectic music is released on Germany’s Intuition label and through Songline/Tonefield Productions.
(Elizabeth) starred most recently in the triumphant Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie (Tony Nomination), which originated at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is a founding member and where earlier in her career she appeared in more than 25 productions including Twelfth Night, Three Sisters and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Broadway and Off-Broadway: Doubt (Tony, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle and Obie Awards), Lincoln Center Theater’s production of The Heiress (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards); Pride’s Crossing (Drama Desk Award); When We Were Young and Unafraid; The Baltimore Waltz (Obie Award); Faith Healer; Flesh and Blood; Imaginary Friends; A Moon for the Misbegotten (Tony Award nomination); Angels in America; Our Country’s Good (Tony Award nomination); and Roundabout Theatre Company’s productions of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Major Barbara and The Night of the Iguana. Television: President Allison Taylor in “24” (Emmy Award), “What Makes a Family,” “Awake,” the next season of “Transparent” on Amazon, the upcoming series “Mercy Street,” and the upcoming mini-series “11/22/63” starring James Franco. Film: Ocean’s Twelve, Cradle Will Rock, The Horse Whisperer, The Perfect Storm, Erin Brockovich, Signs, The Village, Mother and Child, Swimmers, the upcoming films I Saw the Light, and Fun House opposite Tina Fey.
(Elizabeth) NYC: Most recent: Awake & Sing! NAATCO (Obie Award); Washeteria (Soho Rep); A Beautiful Day in November…Great Lakes (New Georges/Women’s Project), Scenes from a Marriage (New York Theater Workshop). Other NYC: Public Theater, Foundry Theater, Civilians, Ma-Yi, Target Margin, Clubbed Thumb, Intar, Pan Asian Rep. Regional: Berkeley Repertory Theater (CA), Swine Palace (LA), Guthrie (MN). International: Manila, Philippines; Abu Dhabi, UAE. Film: I Smile Back, Clutter, Slow Jam King. TV: “Mysteries of Laura,” “Chicago PD,” “Conviction.” Artistic Producing Director and co-founder, NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company). Founding director, CAATA (Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists). Other awards: Lucille Lortel, Lee Reynolds Awards (League of Professional Theatre Women); Actors Equity’s Rosetta LeNoire Award, in recognition of her “artistic contribution to the universality of the human experience in the American theater”; New Dramatists’ Charles Bowden Actor Award. BA, Barnard College; MA, Columbia University.
(Elizabeth) Acting work includes originating the part of the Angel in Angels in America, playing the role in workshops and regional productions through its Broadway run in 1993-1994. Other favorite work includes the Homebody in Bart Sher’s production of Homebody/Kabul (Intiman, Seattle, WA), Pirate Jenny in A Threepenny Opera (Trinity Rep. Elliot Norton Award), Claire in Albee’s A Delicate Balance, (Arena Stage, Yale Repertory Theater), Margie in Good People (George St. Playhouse. Seattle Rep.) and Rosemary in Outside Mullingar (George St. Playhouse.) New York credits include: String of Pearls (Primary Stages), Blue Window (Manhattan Theater Club), and A Bright Room Called Day (Public Theater). Television work includes several appearances on “Law and Order”. McLaughlin is also a playwright.
(Stage Manager) has worked on many of Sarah Ruhl’s plays, including In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play (Victory Gardens Theatre, Jeff nomination), Late, A Cowboy Song (Piven Theatre Workshop), Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination; Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Mosaic Theatre), Passion Play (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes nomination; Goodman Theatre, After Dark Award, Jeff nomination; Yale Rep Theatre, Epic Theatre Ensemble), Eurydice (Madison Repertory Theatre; Piven), Melancholy Play (Piven; Echo Theater Company), and Orlando (Piven; The Actors’ Gang). Her other credits include A Brief History of America (Drama League Directors Project), Careless Love (Soho Rep), Brilliant Traces, American Voices (Piven); Methusalem, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Balcony (New Criminals); Ajax (Theater of War); and development of new work at Sundance, Geva Theatre Center, New Dramatists, Soho Rep, Sewanee and REDCAT. Film credits include Welcome to Me, Novocaine, High Fidelity, Arizona Dream, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Polly is on the cover of the Lemonhead’s album It’s a Shame About Ray and can be heard on track 11 of Lovey.
(Robert) Broadway/NY: Hairspray, Sly Fox, Magic Bird, Out of This World, Ziegfeld Follies of 1937 (City Center Encores!), World Premiere of A.R. Gurney’s Family Furniture, Lucky Guy. Regional: World Premieres of Daniel Sullivan’s Inspecting Carol, Ken Ludwig’s Fox on The Fairway at The George Street Playhouse. Winner Best Actor, Berkshire Theater Festival for The Foreigner. VQT Emmy Award Winner for “Newhart”, Three Time Emmy Nominee, Film Critic’s Award Nomination as Best Featured Actor for “Girls” (HBO), recurring on “Gotham”, also “Bosom Buddies”, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”, “The West Wing”, “E.R.”, “Family Ties”, “White Collar”, “King of Queens”, “Reba”, “Ally McBeal”, “From the Earth to the Moon” (HBO), “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off” (Showtime). Selected Film: That Thing You Do, Polar Express, Suburban Girl, Camp Nowhere, The Ryan White Story, and upcoming Madoff for ABC films.
(Elizabeth) has appeared in numerous theatre productions off and on Broadway. Highlights include Our Country’s Good (Tony® nomination), Sarah, Sarah (Drama Desk nomination), Fuddy Meers (Outer Critics and Drama Desk nominations), and As Bees In Honey Drown (Obie award, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics nominations). Recent credits include a critically acclaimed run as the title character in Juno And The Paycock at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC, as well as Richard Nelson’s Sorry and Sweet and Sad (Drama Desk and Obie awards) at the Public and That Hopey Changey Thing by the same author. Also Midsummer Night’s Dream at La Jolla Playhouse and The Starry Messenger by Kenneth Lonergan at the New Group. TV work includes a Series Regular role on SUNDANCE’S “Rectify” and a Recurring Role on HBO’s “True Blood.” Recent film work includes Frank Whaley’s Like Sunday, Like Rain, and J. also stars opposite Anna Paquin in Kenneth Lonergan’s film Margaret, which won her the Best Supporting Actress award for the International Cinephile Society.
(Robert) won Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance for his portrayal of Louis Armstrong in Satchmo at the Waldorf. Shakespeare & Company: Richard III, Othello, The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, All’s Well That Ends Well, King Lear. Joe Mott in The Iceman Cometh with Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy at the Goodman Theatre, Kent in King Lear at the Public Theater with Sam Waterston, Macbeth at TFANA, Marc Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at Hartford Stage with Kate Mulgrew, Gennady in The Forest at CSC with Dianne Wiest, Brutus Jones in The Emperor Jones at The Irish Rep (Lucille Lortel, Drama League and Drama Desk nominations), Othello at TFANA (OBIE, Lucille Lortel Award, Drama League nomination, AUDELCO nomination). Broadway: A Time to Kill, LeBret in Cyrano with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner, and Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington. International credits: Hotspur in Henry IV (Royal Shakespeare Company). Other off-Broadway credits: Women Beware Women (Red Bull), Enobarbus in Anthony and Cleopatra, Orombo in Oroonoko (TFANA, AUDELCO nomination), Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler (NYTW), Edgar in King Lear (Classical Theater of Harlem, AUDELCO nomination). Regional credits: Lucious Jenkins in Jesus Hopped the A Train (The Wilma Theater, Barrymore Award), Williamstown Theater, Trinity Rep, Shakespeare & Company, ART. TV/FILM: “Law and Order”, “Conviction”, “Michael Clayton”, “Midway”, “Malcolm X”.
(Robert) has appeared on Broadway in Hedda Gabler, The Price, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Visit, A Lesson From Aloes, and Watch On The Rhine. His off-Broadway credits include Raindance at Signature Theatre; Don Juan In Hell at Symphony Space; Steve Tesich’s Arts And Leisure at Playwrights Horizons; Tina Howe’s Approaching Zanzibar at Second Stage; Hamlet, King John, Richard III, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at New York Shakespeare Festival; and Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Hedda Gabler at Roundabout. Regional credits include Finishing the Picture at Goodman Theatre; a recent appearance in the title role of King Lear at New Jersey Shakespeare Festival; The Talking Cure at Mark Taper Forum; Tartuffe at the Guthrie and Arena Stage; Henry V at Hartford Stage; and The Tempest at Shakespeare & Co. Mr. Yulin’s directing credits include Horton Foote’s The Prisoner’s Song at Ensemble Studio Theatre; Conor McPherson’s This Lime Tree Bower at Primary Stages; Don Juan In Hell in London (Riverside Studios) and in New York (Symphony Space), Steve Tesich’s Baba Goya (Second Stage), Adele Shank’s Winter Play at Second Stage; Candida at the Shaw Festival; and The Front Page and The Guardsman at Long Wharf. His television credits include “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight,” “Mister Sterling,” “24,” “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Frasier” (Emmy Nomination), and “La Femme Nikita” (Emmy Nomination). His film credits include Fur, The Place Beyond the Pines, The Emperor’s Club, Training Day, The Million Dollar Hotel, The Hurricane, Looking for Richard, Murder at 1600, Multiplicity, Clear and Present Danger, and Scarface.
WP Theater presents
New York Premiere
DEAR ELIZABETH
Written by Sarah Ruhl & Directed by Kate Whoriskey
Limited Engagement: OCT 26 – DEC 5
Starring a rotating cast of LUMINARIES including: BECKY ANN BAKER, DAVID AARON BAKER, KATHLEEN CHALFANT, RINDE ECKERT, CHERRY JONES, MIA KATIGBAK, ELLEN MCLAUGHLIN, POLLY NOONAN, PETER SCOLARI, J. SMITH-CAMERON, JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON & HARRIS YULIN.
COME JOIN US!
Laura Eason (Playwright) is the author of twenty plays (original work and adaptation), a musical book writer and screenwriter. Productions in ‘14/’15 include Sex With Strangers at Second Stage, NYC; Brisbane Powerhouse, AU; Signature Theatre, D.C. (previously at Steppenwolf Theatre; Sydney Theatre Company, AU; published by Overlook Press); the premiere of the musical Days Like Today, music and lyrics by Alan Schmuckler, commissioned and produced by Writers’ Theatre, Chicago; the premiere of The Undeniable Sound of Right Now with Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre and WP Theater, NYC; and Around the World in 80 Days in an encore production at the New Vic and Royal Exchange in the UK (previously at Lookingglass Theatre, Chicago; Baltimore Centerstage; KC Rep; New Vic; published by Broadway Play Publishing). She was a staff writer on season two and is currently a story editor on season three of the Netflix show “House of Cards”. Laura is an Ensemble Member of Lookingglass Theatre (2011 Regional Tony Award) and served as Artistic Director for six years. In New York, she is a member of Rising Phoenix Rep, New Georges, and a WP Playwright’s Lab alumna. Laura was a singer, songwriter and bass player for the 90’s Chicago power pop band Tart. The band regularly played such venerable venues as Lounge Ax, Double Door, Metro and Empty Bottle. Their CD, START, is available from the dusty box in Laura’s closet. A longtime Chicagoan, she lives in Brooklyn with her family. More information about past productions, current commissions and other things in the works is available at lauraeason.com. Twitter @LeasonNYC
Kirsten Kelly (Director) is a theatre director, educator and documentary filmmaker who lives in Brooklyn. This season, in addition to The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, Kirsten will be directing Macbeth at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Recent New York theatre credits include Slipping by Daniel Talbott with Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre & Piece by Piece Productions (off-broadway), and shows for Rising Phoenix Rep, The Juilliard School and Lincoln Center, The Shakespeare Society and Roots&Branches Theatre (an intergenerational theatre company). Previous highlights include Big Love in Washington D.C. (Helen Hayes nomination for Best Direction), and the D.C. premieres of The Clockmaker and Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gillman (Helen Hayes Nomination, Best Direction) as well as the Midwest/Chicago premiere of Mamet’s Boston Marriage (After Dark Award, Best Director). Kirsten is the Co-creator and director of “CPS Shakespeare” program at Chicago Shakespeare. Kirsten is a graduate of the Master’s Directing program at Juilliard where she received the Andrew W. Mellon Directing Fellowship, is a documentary fellow of the Sundance Documentary Institute and is a proud member of Rising Phoenix Repertory.
DANIEL ABELES (Nash) At Rattlestick: Where We’re Born (Hilltown Plays); Wyoming (Lesser America), reasons to be pretty (Philadelphia Theater Company), Offices (Atlantic Theater Company), Helping People (IRT), Squealer (Lesser America), Too Much Too Soon (Lesser America), Keep Your Baggage With You… (NYIT nominee), Too Little Too Late (NYIT nominee), The Gnadiges Fraulein (Provincetown), The Comedy of Errors (Lake George). TV: Forever, Elementary, Smash (recurring), Law & Order, Wallflowers (recurring). Film: Seattle Road, You Bury Your Own, Son of Mourning, Gasoline. Education: NYU Tisch. Founding member and producing director of Lesser America. Twitter @DanielAbeles
JEB BROWN (Hank) Recently played legendary pop/rock leisure suit Don Kirshner in Beautiful. Other B’way: Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, Time Stands Still, High Fidelity, Ring of Fire, Aida, I’m Not Rappaport, Grease, Bring Back Birdie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Off-Broadway: Romantic Poetry, Game Show. Regional: Steppenwolf, McCarter, Old Globe, Actors Theatre Louisville, Dallas Theatre Center, Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, Coconut Grove, Hartford Theatreworks, Paper Mill. TV: “Law and Order: SVU,” “Star Trek: DS9,” and so many in between. Film: The Dictator, Salt, The Namesake, Renaissance Man, I’ll Do Anything. Co-Founder of LA’s award-winning Evidence Room Theatre Project. Yale. Various bands. Husband to Elyse. Father of Eleanor.
CHRIS KIPINIAK (Joey) Broadway: Macbeth with Alan Cumming, dirs. John Tiffany/Andrew Goldberg; Metamorphoses (dir. Mary Zimmerman), off-Broadway: Kit Marlowe (Public Theater), Charles Winn Speaks… (Living Image Arts), Nora (Marvell Repertory). Regional: Huntington Theater, Lookingglass Theater, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theater. Film/TV/Web: Love Life (also writer), Deal Travis In; The Blacklist, The Good Wife, Delocated; the web series Real Actors Read . . .Playwright: Save the World (Roundtable Ensemble), Iiiinsaaaaaaaane!, Change the Be, Stalled (Horse Trade Theater Group); Comics Writing: Nightcrawler, Amazing Fantasy and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man for Marvel comics, the upcoming Behemoth from MonkeyBrain comics. Twitter @ckipiniak
BRIAN MISKELL (Toby) Recent credits include The Hill Town Plays by Lucy Thurber (Rattlestick, Obie Award), The Aliens by Annie Baker at The Studio Theatre (Washington, D.C.) and The SF Playhouse (West Coast premiere), Eightythree Down (Horse Trade; NY Innovative Theatre Nomination), Barn (Rising Phoenix Rep), Home Universe (Columbia Stages), The Un-Marrying Project (Purple Rep), The Sunken Living Room (Theater 80). Company member with Rising Phoenix Rep. Brian studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute and graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Upcoming at Rattlestick in May 2015:Afghanistan Zimbabwe America Kuwait written and directed by Daniel Talbott. Twitter @BrianMiskell
MARGO SEIBERT (Lena) made her Broadway debut as “Adrian” in the musical adaptation of Rocky and starred off-Broadway as “Tamar” in Marisa Michelson and Josh Cohen’s acclaimed Tamar and the River, for which she was nominated for a 2014 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. Margo has developed work at The Public, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, NAMT, The O’Neill Center, New Dramatists, and has originated roles in pieces for award-winning writers, including David Byrne, Ahrens & Flaherty, Goldrich & Heisler, Adam Gwon and more. Aside from her extensive work in theatre, Margo has appeared on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. She graduated from American University with a degree in International Business. Twitter @Margo_Seibert
LUSIA STRUS (Bette) Women’s Project Theater and Rattlestick debut. Broadway: Enron, Elling. Off-Broadway: The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons). Other credits include Ironbound, Good People (Jeff Award nomination- Supporting Actress), her own solo show, It Ain’t No Fairy Tale (LAWeekly Award-Solo Performance), Hysteria, Our Town and Whispering City (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Commons of Pensacola (Northlight Theatre); Love’s Labours Lost, Merry Wives of Windsor (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Henry IV (Royal Shakespeare Company); Big Love (Goodman Theatre/BAM); SLAVS!, Go Away Go Away (Jeff Award-Principal Actress) (European Repertory Theatre) Travesties and John Guare’s World Premier of Are You There, McPhee? (McCarter Theater) and many years of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (Chicago and New York City) as a Neo-Futurist. Film: Gus Van Sant’s Restless, 50 First Dates, Miss Congeniality 2, Stir of Echoes and independents currently in festivals – Kelly and Cal, The Mend, Cotton. TV: Modern Family, Blue Bloods, Wayward Pines (Fall-2015).
(Playwright) Tanya Barfield’s The Call premiered last spring at Playwrights Horizons in co-production with Primary Stages and was a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Her play Blue Door (South Coast Rep, Playwrights Horizons) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Tanya wrote the book for the Theatreworks/USA children’s musical, Civil War: The First Black Regiment which toured public schools regionally. Other work includes: Feast (co-writer, Young Vic/Royal Court) and Of Equal Measure (Center Theatre Group), Chat (New Dramatists’ Playtime Festival), The Quick (New York Stage & Film). Short plays include: Medallion (WP Theater/Antigone Project), Foul Play (Royal Court Theatre, Cultural Center of Brazil), The Wolves and Wanting North (Guthrie Theatre Lab, named Best 10-Minute Play of 2003). A recipient of a Lilly Award, the inaugural Lilly Award Commission and a Helen Merrill Award, Tanya is a proud alumna of New Dramatists and a member of The Dramatist Guild Council.
(Director) Broadway: Violet (Tony nomination, Roundabout, Encores)); Chinglish; Well. Other: American Hero (2ST); Kung Fu (Signature Theatre); The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons); The Call (Playwrights Horizons); The Madrid (MTC); Golden Child (Signature Theatre); No Place to Go (Public Theater; Two River Theatre); In the Wake (Center Theatre Group/Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Public Theater, Obie Award, Lortel nomination); Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award); From Up Here (MTC, Drama Desk nomination); Yellow Face (Center Theatre Group/The Public Theater); Coraline (MCC/True Love); Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons); Well (The Public Theater; Huntington Theatre; ACT); Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Second Stage Theatre). Recent regional: The Heidi Chronicles (Guthrie Theater); American Hero (WTF); Chinglish (Goodman Theater, Jeff nomination; West Coast/Hong Kong tour).
