(Assistant Director) was born in Toronto, CA, grew up in Shaker Heights, OH, and currently resides in the East Village. She is a performer, director, and all around theater lover. Sari is a graduate of Skidmore College and the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Center in Waterford, CT. She has trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company during their summer intensive training program and also attended the Williamstown Theater Festival in the summer of 2002. As an actor, Sari has performed in numerous productions at Skidmore College and in New York City. She was a member of the Bat Theater Company at the Flea Theater and has also appeared at the American place Theater and the New Perspectives Theater, among others. As a director, Sari has directed several shows at Skidmore College, including the US and collegiate premier of The Other Shoe by Gao Xingjian. Additionally, she directed pieces by Maria Irene Fornes and produced, conceived and performed in her original work, Suspended Animation. In 2005, Sari was the resident assistant director for the Chautauqua Theater Company in Chautauqua, NY where she had the pleasure of working with Ethan McSweeney, Vivienne Benesch, and Mark Nelson, among others. Recently she assisted Michael Ray Escamilla on the New York premiere of Throat at the 45th St Theater. In New York, she has also worked at PS 122, The Ohio Theater, and New York Theater Workshop. Sari believes in the multi-faceted theater artist and that performance and production should be a collaborative experience.
(Stage Manager) – Recent credits include the Broadway production of Souvenir and Timothy Busfield’s staged reading of Vigil by Morris Panych. He continues to tour nationally with the New York based Silver Brown Dance Company. In New York he has worked for the Symphony Space (A Tribute to Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach), the York theatre (Souvenir), the Pantheon Theatre (’01-02), Bowery Poetry Club (Door Wide Open/Rip Torn), Alvin Ailey (Silver Brown), and the University Settlement (House PSM ’03-’04) among others. A native Californian who came to New York by way of the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Mr. Finch is pleased to be back at The Women’s Project and would like to thank his family, Tim B. and Jack Gianino.
(Playwright) Trista Baldwin is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships (04-05 and 05-06)and a 2006-2007 McKnight Advancement Grant. Her work has been produced and developed around the country by groups including The Lark, New Georges, HERE, Urban Stages, The Guthrie, Circle X, The Production Company, ESP, The Red Eye, Bloomington Playwrights’ Project, Overlap Production, The Empty Space Theatre, National New Play Network and HB Playwrights’ Foundation. Recent projects include DOE at the Tokyo International Festival in Japan, FALLING UP at Perishable Theatre Company and PATTY RED PANTS at Seattle’s Live Girls!. Her work is published through Playscripts and Heinnemann. Trista is a co-producing diector of the Workhaus Collective, an Associated Artist of New Georges and a Core Member of The Playwrights’ Center. She currently makes her home in Minneapolis where she is a professor of playwriting at St. Cloud State University
(Justin) Off-Broadway: A Feminine Ending (Playwrights Horizons); As You Like It (NYSF/The Public). Regional: Lulu, The Cherry Orchard (Yale Rep); Once in a Lifetime, The King Stag (Williamstown). Training: Yale School of Drama.
(Keisha) Angela Lewis is a native of Detroit, and earned her BFA in acting at the University of Michigan. Among her favorite credits are commercials for McDonalds, Verizon DSL; films Frijolito Go!, Black Sorority Project; choreographing Killa Dilla directed by Andre DeShields , Classical Theater of Harlem’s Caligula (’05 AUDELCO Award Nomination, Best Choreographer); Original cast of Ben Snyder’s History of the Word, Cherry Lane Theatre’s 2006 Mentor Project workshop production of Katori Hall’s Hoodoo Love (’06 AUDELCO Award Nomination, Best Leading Actress), and the 2007 remount of Hoodoo Love for Cherry Lane’s mainstage. Angela recently joined the LAByrinth Theatre Company and thanks all the powers that be for the opportunity.
(Armando/Ahmed) OFF-BROADWAY: Terrence McNally’s “Some Men”, dir. Trip Cullman (Second Stage), Douglas Carter Beane’s “The Cartells” (Drama Dept.), “Macbeth”, dir. Moises Kaufman (NYSF/The Public), “Based on a Totally True Story” and Nilo Cruz’s “Beauty of the Father”, dir. Michael Greif (MTC). REGIONAL: “Hamlet”, “Lorenzaccio”, and “Ghosts” with Jane Alexander, dir. Ed Sherin (The Shakespeare Theatre Co.), “Anna In the Tropics” (Portland Center Stage), “Lobby Hero” and “Gizmo Love” (W.H.A.T.) “Orphans” (International City Theater ) for which he recieved the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award and Garland for lead performance. FILM: “I Am That Girl” (upcoming), “Hermanas”, “Burning Bridges”, “Window Shopping”. TV: “Law and Order: CI”, HBO”s “Earth vs. The Spider”, “NYPD Blue”, “Touched By an Angel”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, USA Network’s “G vs E”. AEA member since 2001.
(Set Design) Anita is originally from Freiburg, Germany. She recently designed AMERICAN BUFFALO at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre and the Off-Broadway production of BILL W. AND DR. BOB, New World Stages, NYC. She has designed at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lowell, MA, Clarence Brown Theatre, Knoxville, TN, Virginia Stage Company, 2006 Summer Play Festival New York City; Opera Boston, Cutler Majestic Theatre, Boston, American Repertory Theatre Institute; National Players, Olney, MD and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Boston, MA. Some American directors she has worked with include Melia Bensussen, John Sipes, Marcus Stern, Mark Wilkinson, Charlie Hensley, Evan Bergman, Rick Lombardo, Derek Scott and James Petosa. Internationally she worked on the III. International Christmas Circus Festival, Freiburg, Germany; Kormoran (Premiere) Freie Kammerspiele, Cologne, Germany; Four Elements – Elements of Nature (Photographic Exhibition), Wallstreet Institute, Freiburg, Germany. She holds an MFA in Scenic Design, Boston University and an apprentice diploma as designer of digital and print media, Atelier für Medienprojekte (Media Art & installation Studio) -Egbert Mittelstädt, Cologne, Germany.
(Costume Design) Women’s Project : Transfigures. Current credits include sets and/or costumes for Equus / Blonde Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead ( Asolo Repertory Theater), Edward the Second ( Red Bull Theater),The Tempest( The Acting Company),Most Wanted (La Jolla Playhouse), Donnie Darko, Onion Cellar (American Repertory Theater), As You Like It ( Folger Shakespeare)Taming of the Shrew (Dallas Theater Center), Measure for Measure (Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey), The Tempest (Acting Company), Ah, Wilderness!! (Centerstage Baltimore), Angels in America (Opera Boston). Una Cosa Rara (Opera Theatre of St. Louis) and others. New York: Public Theater, Vineyard Theater, The Play Company, Ma-Yi Theater, Mint Theater, Red Bull Theater, Play Company, Women’s Project, PS 122, Foundry Theater, The Culture Project, NAATCO, Juilliard and others. International: De Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam), Stuttgarter Ballet (Stuttgart), Rijksteatern & Folkoperan (Stockholm), Teatro Pilipino (Manila), Barbican (London), Kanon Dance (St. Petersburg). Awards and Noms: IRNE, Audelco, Elliot Norton, Gary Kalkin Memorial Award, NYTW Design Fellowship, Live Design Magazine’s list of Designers to Watch for 2007and recently, the American Theater Wing’s Henry Hewes Design Award.
(Sound Design) Off- Broadway: The Atlantic Theater (Scarcity, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow), Cherry Lane Theater (Hoodoo Love), Keen Company (Theophilus North, Tea and Sympathy, The Dining Room, The Maddening Truth), MTC (The Four of Us), The New Group (Everythings Turning Into Beautiful, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Things We Want), SecondStage (The Mystery Plays), Rattlestick Theater (Acts of Mercy, Stay), Women’s Project (The Cataract, Victoria Martin). Regional: Actors Theater of Phoenix, Alley Theater, Arena Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Dorset Theater Festival, Geva Theater Center, Huntington Theater, Long Wharf , Portland Center Stage, San Jose Rep, The Shakespeare Theater, Studio Theater, TheaterWorks Hartford , Westport Country Playhouse, Weston Playhouse, and Yale Rep.
(Original Music) The Broken Chord Collective is a collaborative partnership of musicians that compose, produce, and design music for theater, film. For this production, The Broken Chord Collective is Aaron Meicht (Composition), and Daniel Baker (Production).
(Fight Director) N.Y. Theater: Almost an Evening, (NY premiere) Ethan Coen one acts, Atlantic Theater, Neil Pepe dir.; Spring Awakening, Atlantic Theater and Broadway, Michael Mayer dir.; Come Back, Little Sheba, (MTC revival) Biltmore Theater, Michael Pressman, dir.; Blackbird, (NY premiere) Manhattan Theater Club, Joe Mantalo dir.; Our Leading Lady, (NY premiere) Manhattan Theater Club, Lynne Meadow dir.; The American Pilot, (NY premiere) Manhattan Theater Club, Lynne Meadow dir.; The Lieutenant of Inishmore, (NY Premiere) Atlantic Theater and Broadway, Wilson Milam dir; Sore Throats, Theater for a New Audience, Evan Yionoulis dir; Bug, (NY premiere) Barrow St. Theatre, Dexter Bullard dir.; Women of Lockerbie, St. Clement’s Church, Scott Elliot dir.; Killer Joe, 29th St. Playhouse (NY premiere) & Soho Playhouse, Wilson Milam dir.; Blood Wedding, Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, Melia Bensussen dir.; Richard II, NYSF, Stephen Burkoff dir.; Revenger’s Tragedy, Culture Project, Jesse Berger dir.; Eat The Taste, Barrow St. Theatre, John Clancy dir.; Bare, ATA, Kristin Hanggi, dir.; Hiding Behind Comets, 29th St. Rep, David Mogentale dir. Touring/Regional: Jekyll & Hyde, National Tour, David Warren dir.; The Taming of the Shrew, Dallas Theater Center, Richard Hamburger dir.; Othello, Hartford Stage, Karin Coonrod dir.; Camelot, Shubert Theater, Boston, Gabriel Barre dir.; Pacific Overtures, North Shore Music Theatre, Kent Gash dir.; Speed the Plow, Center Stage, Daniel Fish dir.; Indian wants the Bronx, Edinburgh Festival, Bill Balzac dir.. A Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors, David is also the creator and current instructor of the Stage Combat Program at Tisch School of the Arts, and has taught at Yale Schools of Music and Drama, The Stella Adler Conservatory, The Lee Strasberg Institute, Atlantic Theater, and The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Guest Instructor). He has also had the pleasure of working with Stella Adler, Franco Zeffirelli, Joe Chaikin, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Joseph Papp. “…walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.” G. Fox
(Casting Director) Alaine Alldaffer is the Casting Director for Playwrights Horizons and The Huntington Theater in Boston. Currently in production at PWH is Deadman’s Cellphone with Mary Louise Parker. Theater credits include Grey Gardens (PWH) and Broadway, Walmartopia the musical, “The Knights of Prosperity” (ABC), “ED” ( NBC). Currently in the works is She Loves Me for the Huntington and The Williamstown Theater Festival. She credits Lisa Donadio, her Associate and right arm.
(Director) Liz is a Resident Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, and serves as Chair of the Directing Department at the Yale School of Drama, where she has taught since 1992. At Yale Rep, her productions have included Marcus Gardley’s Dance of the Holy Ghosts, Richard Nelson’s translation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie; Sunil Kuruvilla’s Fighting Words and Rice Boy; Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy; Paul Schmidt’s translations of Moliere’s School for Wives, and Brecht’s St. Joan of the Stockyards; Suzan-Lori Parks’ The America Play; and Parks’ The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World. A longtime collaborator of Parks, Liz also directed the world premieres of Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third at BACA Downtown, Betting on the Dust Commander at the Working Theater, and The America Play at the Public Theater in New York. National credits include Lisa Loomer’s Distracted, Octavio Solis’ Gibraltar and Kenneth Cavander’s new translation of Euripides’ The Trojan Women at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Racine’s Phedre at the American Repertory Theatre; and Of Mice and Men at Arena Stage. Liz is a winner of the OBIE Award and Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Direction, and has won fellowships and grants for her work from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Asian Cultural Council and the SDC Foundations. She currently serves as Artistic Advisor to the Women’s Project.
(Maribel) New York credits include: The Piano Teacher (Vineyard Theatre), The Thugs (Soho Rep), columbinus (NYTW;Drama League Nomination for Ensemble), The House of Bernarda Alba (NAATCO), Misterioso 119 (Act French/Lark), Romeo and Juliet (RTW), Les Liaisons Dangereuses, HamletMachine, Ahraishak (Theater Mitu) London: Hamlet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Vagina Monologues. Regional: Hartford Stage, Berkshire Theater Festival, McCarter, RMT, Mark Taper Forum, NCT. TV and FILM: Cold Case (CBS), Six Degrees (ABC), 2007ABC Diversity Showcase; and the upcoming films, Tiny Dancer (Dir. Eva Husson), The Trouble with Cali (Dir. Paul Sorvino),Two Lovers (James Gray) and Burn After Reading (Dirs. Joel and Ethan Coen) Training: BFA NYU Tisch; ETW Amsterdam; The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.
(Laney) Broadway: Coram Boy, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Off-Bway: The Devil’s Disciple (Irish Rep),Other NYC Theater: History of Tears, TV/FILM: The Sopranos (recurring role), 3 LBS, various commercials.
(Elise) Betsy Aidem received the 2007 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence. Most recently seen in Tender with 13th Night dir. Kevin O’Rourke; Mary Rose at the Vineyard Theater, dir. Tina Landau; Celebration and The Room and Sea of Tranquility at The Atlantic, dir. Neil Pepe; Stone Cold Dead Serious with Edge at Chashama, dir. Carolyn Cantor; Good Thing at The New Group, dir. Jo Bonney; The Butterfly Collection at Playwrights Horizons, dir. Bartlett Sher; The Triple Happiness at Second Stage, dir. John Michael Garces; Luminescence Dating at E.S.T., dir. Will Pomerantz; Sweet Bird of Youth at Williamstown, dir. David Jones;and The Sugar Syndrome at Williamstown, dir. Maria Mileaf. Selected TV and Film credits: Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, Law and Order: Trial by Jury, The Jury, The West Wing, Sex and the City (Margaret), You Can Count on Me (dir. Kenneth Lonergan), Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants II, Sanaa Lathan, and Winter Passing (dir. Adam Rapp).
(Set Design) Recent designs include sets for The Boy Jumped Into the Sea (Yale School of Drama); costumes for Antony & Cleopatra, Tamburlaine and Richard III (The Shakespeare Theatre, dir. Michael Kahn); Dance of the Holy Ghosts (Yale Repertory Theatre, dir. Liz Diamond); Henry IV (Milwaukee Shakespeare). Jennifer is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
(Costume Design) Recent New York productions include: Jerry Springer: The Opera (Carnegie Hall,) Almost An Evening and Scarcity (Atlantic Theater,) The Piano Teacher (Vineyard Theater,) Emma (New York Musical Festival,) The American Pilot (MTC,) Hot n’ Throbbin’ (Signature Theater), Controversy at Vallalodid and Fucking A (Public Theater), Savannah Bay (MCC), God of Hell, Wit, Swimming with Watermelons, Unwrap Your Candy, Tabletop, Hard Times and Princess Wishes, Disney on Ice. Also, as Associate Costume Designer for Spamalot, The Crucible, Art and the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. Regional: Williamstown Theater Festival including The Autumn Garden, Sweet Bird of Youth, Top Girls and On the Razzle. Europe: Norwegian National Ballet and Saturday Night Fever in Holland. Ilona is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama and recent addition to its faculty.
(Lighting Design) S. Ryan Schmidt is a New York based lighting designer. She has been working professionally in and around the city since 1997. Her New York City credits include The Mystery Plays (Second Stage, Mcginn/Cazale), Port Authority Throwdown (The Working Theater), Critical Darling (The New Group), The Job (WPA), The Abudction Project (HERE), Suzuki (GermanTheater Abroad), and Chamber Dance Company. Regional Credits include Iron Kisses (The Geva Theater), Love for Three Oranges (The Playgrouond Theater), King Lear (Yale Reperatory Theater), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Rivals (Hudson Valleyy Shakespear). Most recently she designed the world premier of The Glass Heart for the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2004 she was awarded teh Connecticut Critics Circle Award for her work on The Mystery Plays at the Yale Reperatory Theater. She has an M.F.A in lighting design from Yale School of Drama, and a B.F.A in theater from New York University.
(Original Music & Sound Designer) Women’s Project: Wapato. New York credits include: Merchant of Venice (with F. Murray Abraham at TFANA), Constant Couple and The Mandrake (The Pearl), Return of the Prodigal (The Mint), Blind Mouth Singing (NAATCO); Killing the Boss (written by Catherine Filloux), Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare on the Sound), and Dracula (with Lorenzo Lamas at Premiere Stages). Regional: Capital Rep, Merrimack Rep, Yale Rep. Dance collaborations include: Big Dance Theater, Susan Marshall, Terry Creach. Current projects include Antony and Cleopatra (TFANA), Liberty City (NYTW), Open House (The Foundry Theater) and The Fifth Column by Hemingway at the Mint. Graduate: Yale School of Drama. Recipient: NEA/TCG Career Development Program, Meet the Composer.
(Casting Director) Alaine Alldaffer is the Casting Director for Playwrights Horizons and The Huntington Theater in Boston. Currently in production at PWH is Deadman’s Cellphone with Mary Louise Parker. Theater credits include Grey Gardens (PWH) and Broadway, Walmartopia the musical, The Knights of Prosperity (ABC), ED (NBC). Currently in the works is She Loves Me for the Huntington and The Williamstown Theater Festival. She credits Lisa Donadio, her Associate and right arm.
(Marco, the Market Tamer) David is a member of LAByrinth Theater Company, has a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo and is the frontman for the Texas-Goth rock band MonsterRally. His first job after college was touring the New England coast carnival circuit in a song and dance troupe called Music Dance USA where Dave was known as “Young Elvis of the Midway.” His theater credits include: Night Over Taos (Intar), Aunt Dan & Lemon (New Group); Knives & Other Sharp Objects (LAByrinth); September Shoes (Geva); Richard Scheckner’s Hamlet; Stand-up Tragedy (Joseph Jefferson Award – Apple Tree Theater); Peter Sellars’ Merchant of Venice (International Tour). Film credits include: On The Moon; Capers; Prime; Planet Brooklyn; Man of the Century; Indocumentados.
(Playwright) Her plays include The Bridegroom of Blowing Rock, Crooked, How the World Began, Hot Georgia Sunday and The Most Deserving. Her work has been produced Off-Broadway at Women’s Project Theater, the Bush Theatre (London), Out of Joint at the Arcola Theatre (London), South Coast Repertory, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Denver Theater Center, and Florida Stage, among others. She has received commissions from South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Denver Theatre Center. She is the recipient of the Weissberger Award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award from the Inge Theatre Festival, and the Edgerton New Play Award. Her work is published by Samuel French in the U.S. and Methuen in the U.K. She also wrote the screenplay for the film Angel’s Crest, released by Magnolia Pictures. Originally from Athens, Georgia, she now lives in a small town in western Kansas.
(Director) Upcoming: the world premiere of Catherine Trieschmann’s The Most Deserving (Denver Center Theatre Company), Fox on the Fairway (Penobscot Theatre). Recent credits include This is Fiction by Megan Hart, starring Richard Masur at Cherry Lane (InViolet Rep), The Borrowers, (South Coast Repertory), No Way to Treat a Lady (The Colony Theater), world premieres of Christina Gorman’s Sacred Ground (Stella Adler), Ruth McKee’s The Nightshade Family (SPF), John Glore’s adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time (South Coast Repertory) and Eric Coble’s Straight On ‘Til Morning (Great Lakes Theater Festival). Shelley spent two seasons as artistic associate in charge of new play development for Hartford Stage and three seasons as artistic associate for Great Lakes Theater Festival and is the current Features Editor for the SDC Journal. She is the recipient of Drama League Directing Fellowship, a 2005 Director’s Guild of America Trainee, a member of SDC, the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab and is a WP Lab alum.
(Jolene Atkinson) Recently appeared in The Old Friends at Signature and “Two Broke Girls,” “Smash,” “Louie,” and “Pan Am.” Broadway: A Free Man of Color, La Cage au Folles, Caroline, or Change, The Dinner Party, Company (Tony and Drama Desk Award Nominations), Smile. Off-Broadway: Obie Award for Sustained Excellence Damn Yankees (Encores!); Blind (Rattlestick); Paradise Park (Signature, Lucille Lortel Nomination); Spain(Lucille Lortel Nomination); Last Easter (Drama Desk Nomination); The Wooden Breeks (MCC); House and Garden, Labor Day (MTC); The Altruists, The Batting Cage, The Waiting Room, Flora, the Red Menace (Vineyard); Freedomland (Playwrights Horizons); A Question of Mercy (NYTW). Regional:The Beaux’ Stratagem (Helen Hayes Nomination); The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, The Way of the World (Shakespeare Theatre Co.); Private Lives (Guthrie).
