Spark Theatrical/Laurie Bernhard Laurie is an independent theatrical creative producer concentrating on daring new plays that provide a lens into the condition of being human. Laurie collaborates with playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, actors and designers exploring new work, experimenting and pushing boundaries. SPARK connects plays with non-profits that share a common mission, providing audiences with the opportunity for education and action beyond the play. SPARK Theatrical has multiple projects in development in Los Angeles and New York. Laurie is on the Boards of Ojai Playwrights Conference and Thunder River Theatre Company.
COLT COEUR is a Brooklyn-based theatre company founded in 2010. Their original, story-driven, visceral theatre embraces the power of intimate live performance—it pulls you close and doesn’t let go. Their community of artists nurtures and invests in diverse perspectives to produce work that challenges the boundaries between tradition and experimentation. They embrace the ambivalence, terror and exhilaration of our time with theatre that is an antidote to the pervasive cultural illness of loneliness. They explore themes of coming-of-age, individual and collective identity, nostalgia and history, public versus private, love, lust, and loss. Through their unique collective process, every theatre artist—actor, playwright, designer—takes part in shared invention and collaborative creation; creating heart- and mind-opening audience experiences unlike any other. They nurture the next generation of theatre artists by providing access, education and a professional pipeline, while amplifying voices and perspectives that have historically been sidelined.
Colt Coeur’s 24-member ensemble of actors, designers, playwrights, and directors incubates the next generation of theatre artists through the development and production of new plays—which they create from scratch. Over 14 years, Colt Coeur has produced 17 world premieres, one East Coast premiere, developed nearly 50 plays, and provided free arts intensives for over 200 students. They pride themselves in being a laboratory for exploration while also nurturing the work of emerging artists and providing them a launch pad for their visions.
Colt Coeur has a tremendous reputation among artists and audiences alike. The company is renowned for its high artistic standards, and artists who work with Colt Coeur have gone on to contribute to and excel in every level of the entertainment industry. Colt Coeur has helped launch the multi-faceted careers of Timothée Chalamet, Ato Essandoh, Betty Gilpin, Steven Levenson, Ana Nogueira, and Joe Tippett, among many others.
Corinne Jaber (Playwright) is of Syrian/German heritage and was born in Munich and raised in Canada and Germany. She is an award-winning actress as well as a writer/director/ She has been part of many international theater productions in English as well as in French, such as – to name but a few – Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata, A Dybbuk For 2, by and with the late Bruce Myers, Irina Brook’s Beast on the Moon (for which she obtained a “Molière” the best actress award in France) and more recently Oh My Sweet Land, a monologue which she conceived and co-authored together with together with Amir Nizar Zubai as well as acted in. For many years she has worked with Afghan actors in Kabul on Shakespeare. Their work culminated in production of Comedy of Errors at the “Globe to Globe Festival” for the Globe Theater in London. Her play The Bus That Didn’t Stop On the Partition of India has now developed into her very first film which she also produced and directed. She is currently in the process of post-production. Munich Medea: Happy Family, her most recent play, will premier in New York in 2024.
Lee Sunday Evans (Director) is a two-time Obie Award-winning Director + Choreographer and the Artistic Director of Waterwell. She most recently directed the acclaimed production of Heather Christian’s ORATORIO FOR LIVING THINGS and was just announced as the director of a Broadway-bound musical adaptation of A WRINKLE IN TIME. She is developing a TV project for A24. Notable credits include DANCE NATION by Clare Barron, DETROIT RED by Will Power, SUNDAY by Jack Thorne, IN THE GREEN by Grace McLean, MILLER, MISSISSIPPI by Boo Killebrew, and HOME by Geoff Sobelle. She also directed THE COURTROOM by Arian Moayed (NYTimes Best Theater of 2019) which she just directed as a feature-length film that premiered in the 2022 Tribeca Festival.
Crystal Finn (Caroline) is thrilled to be working for the first time with WP, and to be back working with PlayCo. after performing in their production of one of her all-time favorite plays Villa, by Guillermo Calderon. NY theater includes many world premieres at Playwright’s Horizons, Roundabout, MTC, 59E59, Fulcrum, and Clubbed Thumb where she is an affiliated artist. In 2022 she made her Broadway debut in Birthday Candles, by Noah Haidle, for which she won a Theater World Award. She is also a writer and is working on a solo show about Wittgenstein and a book of essays about acting.
Heather Raffo (Alice) is a singular and outstanding voice in the American theater whose work has been championed by the New Yorker as “an example of how art can remake the world”. Having helped forge a new genre of Arab American theater, she’s spent her career writing and embodying stories of Iraq: from the lives and dreams of Iraqi women in her seminal work 9 Parts of Desire (2003), to the suicidal ideation of an Iraq war veteran in the opera Fallujah (PBS film 2012), to the restless longings of an Iraqi refugee architect, in Noura (2018). A film adaptation of Nine Parts, released on PBS in 2023, is a radical reimagining of her groundbreaking play from the vantage point of 20 years after the war. A recent Creative Capital, NPN and APAP grantee, Raffo is currently building an ambitious new theatrical platform following migration and the global economy which aims to be the first ever-evolving, multi-locational theater platform.
Kurt Rhoads (Father) Broadway: Julius Caesar. Off Broadway: Off Peak by Brenda Withers, 59E59 St Theatre; Fashions for Men, Mint Theatre; Othello, The Good Natur’d Man, Pearl Theatre; The Case of Kaspar Mayer, Ubu Rep, Americana Absurdum, Present Company. Regional: Arena Stage, How I Learned to Drive, Agamemnon and his Daughters; Everyman Theatre: Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Sweat; Old Globe: Fiction, Dinner with Friends; Denver Center: Book of Will. 25 seasons of acting and directing at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Video Games: Red Dead Revoler, Redemption, GTA San Andreas, III, Bully. 73 plays with his wife, Nance Williamson. Education: University of Chicago, DePaul University.
Kristen Robinson (Scenic Design) is an award-winning designer, artist, and educator. Her work ranges from experimental opera to regional theatre and everything in between. Select design credits include: with WP Theater, [PORTO], Drinking in America (Audible Theater), Don Giovanni, (Wolftrap Opera), Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova), In the Green (LCT3), Heart of Darkness (Baryshnikov Arts Center), Minor Character (Under the Radar Festival), Everybody Black, The Thin Place (Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville), graveyard shift (Goodman Theatre), Familiar (Steppenwolf Theatre), Ethel (Alliance Theatre). She is the Assistant Professor of Scenic Design at Purchase College. A Princess Grace Fellow, she holds her MFA from Yale University and is a proud member of USA 829. You can view her work at kristenrobinsondesign.com.
(Costume Design, she/her) Regional: Lost Girl (Dartmouth); Selling Kabul (Northern Stage); English (Barrington Stage); Disgraced (American Stage); A Distinct Society (TheaterWorks); Layalina (Goodman Theatre); A Distinct Society (Pioneer Theater); English (Studio Theater); Selling Kabul (Seattle Rep); Unseen (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); When Monica Met Hillary (Miami New Drama); This is Who I Am (OSF/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co./Guthrie Theater/American Repertory Theater/PlayCo); 9 Parts of Desire (Portland Center Stage); King Lear (Northern Stage); Noura (The Guthrie); Noura (The Old Globe); Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Off-Broadway: Weightless (WP theater); The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater); Spindle Shuttle Needle (Clubbed Thumb); Heartland (Geva Theater/59E59); First Down (Noor Theater/59E59); Hindsight (Fault Line Theater). Other theatre credits: One Night, P*ssyC*ck Know Nothing, Marjana and the Forty Thieves Pay No Attention To The Girl (Target Margin Theater). Design for Stage and Film MFA–New York University Tisch School of the Arts. www.dinae.me
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (Lighting Design) is an award-winning designer for theatre, dance, opera, musicals, music performances and large-scale immersive installation. NY Times described her designs as “clever” and “inventive”. Recent: Kimberly Akimbo (Broadway), King Lear (STC), WILD: A Musical Becoming (A.R.T.), The Nosebleed (LCT3), Gloria: A Life (Daryl Roth Theatre), Walden (Theaterworks), Golden Shield (MTC), cullud wattah (The Public), Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova). Plus designing for immersive experiences like Nevermore Park: Home of Flyboy with artist Hebru Brantley. www.jeanetteyew.com
UptownWorks / Daniela Hart (Sound Design) The UptownWorks sound team is a group of designers that creates collaboratively for theatre, film, podcasts, music production and other media. Select design highlights include Lady Day (Baltimore Center Stage); Tiny Father (Barrington Stage/Chautauqua); Avaaz (South Coast Rep); Singularity Play (HarvardTDM); Black Odyssey (Classic Stage); Chicken & Biscuits (Asolo Rep); Espejos:Clean (Hartford Stage/Syracuse Stage); Which Way To The Stage (Signature DC); the ripple, the wave…(Berkeley Rep/Goodman); Blues Clues & You! (Round Room Live); Queen (Long Wharf Theater/A.R.T.NY); Fires in the Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage/Long Wharf Theatre). This design was led by Daniela Hart (uptownworksnyc.com), Bailey Trierweiler (btsounddesign.com) and Noel Nichols (noelnicholsdesign.com). Daniela, Noel & Bailey received their MFAs in Sound Design from Yale School of Drama.
Skylar Fox (Magic Design) Broadway: Fat Ham (OBIE award); associate designer for Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, Back to the Future, and A Beautiful Noise . Off-Broadway/ International: Boop! (Broadway in Chicago), The Comeuppance (Signature Theatre), You Will Get Sick (Roundabout Theatre Company), Wicked, Matilda (Atilier de Cultura, São Paulo) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (London Grand), and Damn Yankees (Shaw Festival). He is the co-artistic director of Nightdrive, where he has directed and co-written The Grown-Ups (Top 10 NYC Theatre Productions of 2021, Time Out NY), Alien Nation, Providence, RI, Thank You Sorry, and Apathy Boy. www.skylarfox.com & nightdrive.org.
Jaimie Van Dyke (Production Stage Manager) OFF-BWAY/REGIONAL: SM credits: Ironbound (Rattlestick/WP), A Beautiful Day in November…(New Georges/WP, Obie Award), Bright Half Life (WP), HERE (NY Comedy Fest/186k Productions), How to Get into Buildings (New Georges), Roar of the Greasepaint… (Goodspeed Musicals), Tonight at 8:30 (Guild Hall) and 10 productions with Blessed Unrest. TOURS: With Hasan Minhaj: “Off With His Head”, “The King’s Jester”, “Homecoming King”, “Before the Storm” (stage manager & tour manager). Sworn Virgin and Doruntine (Balkan tour with Teatri Oda of Kosova & Blessed Unrest) TV/FILM: Producer “The King’s Jester”, Assoc. Producer “Homecoming King”, Screens Producer “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj”, GFX Producer “Game Theory with Bomani Jones”
Samantha Tutasi (Properties Supervisor) Ecuadorian-American props and scenic designer, most recent collaborations include: Theater – Coping Mechanism (Wild Project); Virgin, Mother, Whore (Boundless Theater Co.), Captain Courageous and The Secret Garden (Powerhouse Theater Collaborative); Film -.Egg Timer (dir. Annie Tippe). She frequently works with the American Theater Wing on their educational program, Springboard To Design. BFA: State University of New York at Purchase, 2022. samanthatutasidesign.myportfolio.com
DAVID GARELIK (Nathan) Select TV/Film: “Power Book 2: Ghost” (STARZ), “FBI” (CBS), “FBI: MOST WANTED” (CBS), “The Blacklist” (CBS), “Dear White People” (Netflix), “MacGyver” (CBS), “Madam Secretary” (CBS), Trey Edward Shults’ Waves (A24), Peter Berg’s Mile 22 (STX), Zoey Cassavetes’ Junior (Blackpill), and a lead role in Daniel Byers’ upcoming film Paradise. Theater: u/s LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (The Geffen), THE GOOD MUSLIM (Ensemble Studio Theater). Love to my family, my teachers, and those that have believed in me/helped me memorize lines over the years. Thrilled to be here with WP Theater and Colt Coeur. Socials: @DavidGarelik
MALIKA SAMUEL (Melody) who starred in WP Theater’s Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, is an interdisciplinary storyteller and teaching artist, presently faculty at her alma mater NYU Tisch. Additionally, she applies her creative experiences and professional skills towards developing curricular interventions across the medical/healthcare education/practice continuum. Broadway: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (OBC), The Music Man NY Theater: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Double Feature Plays), Bernarda’s Daughters (TNG/TNBT and TNG/Audible Theater), Crumbs from the Table of Joy (Keen), Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP) TV: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, EVIL, Orange Is the New Black, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Chicago P.D., Law & Order: SVU, The Good Wife, Person of Interest, The Big C Hosting: Nick Studio 10, 2013 Kids’ Choice Awards Pre- Show, Kidz Bop Kidz Star USA Film: Holiday Rush, Submission, Central Park, Hello Apartment, Kilimanjaro Directing: in lucem: a devised piece (Tisch Drama Stages), The Wolves, Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes, The House of Bernarda Alba (NYU MSNR), Bloom Bloom Pow ( A.R.T/NY Theaters, movement direction) XOXO to family, friends, Paradigm and A3!
Eliana Pipes (Playwright) is a writer, filmmaker and actor based in her hometown of Los Angeles. Her plays include Dream Hou$e (world premiere co-production Alliance Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, and Baltimore Center Stage, published by Concord Samuel French); Hoops (world premiere commission Milwaukee Chamber Theater); and Bite Me (world premiere WP Theater). She holds commissions from Two River Theater and South Coast Repertory. Her work has been developed or presented at the New York Theatre Workshop Dartmouth Residency, Playwright’s Realm Scratchpad Series, South Coast Repertory Pacific Playwright’s Festival, NNPN National New Play Showcase, Kennedy Center NNPN MFA Playwright’s Workshop, Old Globe Powers New Voices Festival, Fire This Time Festival, and Drama League DirectorFest. Her writing awards include the Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, Alliance Kendeda Prize, Leah Ryan Prize, KCACTF Harold and Mimi Steinberg Award, National Latine Playwrights Award, and Dr. Floyd Gaffney Award. As a filmmaker she’s been awarded the Academy Gold Fellowship for Women through AMPAS, the WAVE Grant and Outfest x Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant. BA English Columbia University, MFA Playwriting Boston University. www.elianapipes.com.
Rebecca Martínez (Director) is a multidisciplinary director, the Cohort Collaborations Director for One Nation/One Project and the former BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater. Recent projects: a musical adaptation of The Comedy of Errors (The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit), Sancocho (WP Theater), Living and Breathing (Two River), Los Complicados (EST Marathon), Randy’s Dandy Coaster Castle (Egg & Spoon Collective), Songs About Trains (Working Theater and Radical Evolution), Somewhere Over the Border (Syracuse Stage and Geva Theatre). Rebecca has developed new work with The Public Theater, Amas Musical Theater, the O’Neill, Latinx Playwrights Circle, the Sol Project, NAMT, INTAR, Working Theater, The Playwrights Realm, among others. Affiliations: Sojourn Theatre Ensemble, 2021 TCG Rising Leaders of Color; Sol Project Collective, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, INTAR’s Unit52, New Georges Affiliated Artist, WP Theater Directors Lab, Drama League Directing Fellow, member of SDC. Awards: Colorado Henry Award for Directing; four Portland, Oregon Drammy Awards; Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists. Rebecca is originally from Colorado with deep ancestral roots in the Southwest. rebeccamartinez.org
Chika Shimizu (Scenic Design) is a New York based scenic designer. REGIONAL: RENT (Paper Mill Playhouse), Pacific Overtures (Signature Theatre, DC), The Great Wave (Berkeley Rep), Sanctuary City (Pasadena Playhouse), Somewhere (Geva Theatre), The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), Vietgone, Tiger Style! (TheatreSquared), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Yale Rep, CT Critics Circle Award Nom). OFF-BROADWAY: Belfast Girls (Irish Rep), The Naturalists (The Pond Theatre Company, Soho Rep), The Winning Side (Epic Theatre Ensemble, Theatre Row), Awake (The Barrow Group), Romulus The Great (Yangtze Repertory Theatre). INSTALLATION: Another Dream, Un(re)solved AR installation (Ado Ato Pictures, 2022 SXSW Innovation Award, Emmy Award, Currently On Tour). MFA in Design from Yale School of Drama. chikashimizu.com
Sarita Fellows (Costume Design), born in Freetown Sierra Leone, her more recent works include projects such as Death of a Salesman, Broadway; Drinking in America, Audible Minetta Lane Theater; Theater of the Mind, Denver Center of Performing Arts; Elyria, Atlantic Theater Co; A Midsummer’s Night Dream at Portland Center Stage, Blues for An Alabama Sky and Sweat, Guthrie theater; Joy and Pandemic, and Our Daughters Like Pillars, Huntington Theater; Seize The King, Alliance Theater; A Bright Room Called Day, Public Theater; Fefu and Her Friends, American Conservatory Theater. In the dance world, Sarita has worked with choreographers such as Liz Lerman, and Edisa Weeks. MFA in design from Tisch School of Design. Sarita also instructs at the University of Connecticut and Princeton. Recent awards include; Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design (The National Black Theater Festival 2022). Lily Award (2020)
Lucrecia Briceno (Lighting Design) is a Peruvian artist currently based in Brooklyn. Much of her work has been in association with artists developing innovative and original pieces. Her work includes theatre, opera, puppetry & dance, as well as collaborations in several non-performance projects. Her designs have been presented at such venues as Spoleto USA, The Public Theater, Oxford Playhouse (UK), Arena Stage, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dallas Theatre Center, WP, BAM (Fischer), Kennedy Center, Atlas Performing Arts (DC), Berlind Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, La Mama ETC, Birmingham Repertory (UK), Pregones Theatre/PRTT, Intar, HERE Arts Center, Soho Rep, Ohio Theatre, Irondale Center, among many others. She is a co-artistic director of Anonymous Ensemble, associate artist with The Civilians, and resident designer with Pregones Theatre/PRTT and La Micro; she has also been a guest artist/lecturer at NYU, Princeton University, Hunter College, the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and JMU. MFA: NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Member of 829
Tosin Olufolabi (Sound Design) (she/her) is a sound designer and deviser. Her sound designs include Ain’t No Mo (Woolly Mammoth/Baltimore Center Stage); Sense & Sensibility (The Village); Fires in the Mirror (Theater J); Crying on Television, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery & The Sound Inside (Everyman Theater); Incendiary, There’s Always the Hudson, Hi, Are You Single?, Gloria* (Woolly Mammoth); it’s not a trip it’s a journey, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Round House Theatre); The Great Khan (San Diego Rep); The Thanksgiving Play (Olney Theatre Center); In the Middle of the Fields (Solas Nua); A Wind in the Door (Kennedy Center TYA); Distance Frequencies (Rorschach Theatre); Loveday Brooke in the Mystery of the Drawn Daggers & Lovers’ Vows (We Happy Few); Head Over Heels (Monumental Theater); My Barking Dog (Edge of the Universe Players 2); Peepshow (dog & pony dc); Lela & Co. (Factory 449). Assistant design credits include Plays for the Plague Year (Joe’s Pub); Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (The Kennedy Center TYA); Still Life with Rocket (Theater Alliance); and Proof (Olney Theatre Center). *Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Sound Design for a Hayes Production
Ashley Wise is a Wig Hair Designer, native New Yorker from The Bronx, who recently made her Broadway design debut on Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. Ashley earned her Master of Fine Arts for Wig Design & Makeup design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts after also completing the Juilliard Apprentice Program for wigs. She’s toured the country as wig and makeup Supervisor on the Hamilton tour and has made a career working on many other opera and theater productions. She also served as Hair Design Associate on shows including KPOP, 1776, Disney’s Hercules, and Once Upon a One more Time!
Judi Lewis-Ockler (Fight and Intimacy Director) has collaborated with Classic Stage Company (Snow in Midsummer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Man of No Importance), Signature Theater (Hot Wing King,One in Two,Jasper), WP theater/Second Stage (Hatef**k, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord), Cherry Lane Theater (This Beautiful Future), New World Stages (Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors!, MsTrial), The Mint Theater (The Rat Trap, US premiere) Bedlam Theater Company (Persuasion), TOSOS (Bar Dykes, Rock the Line) and Williamstown Theater Festival (A Raisin in the Sun, A Human Being,of a Sort, directed by Robert O’Hara; Whitney White). Intimacy Coordinator tv/film credits include Out of the Blue, directed by Neil La Bute; Plan B, with Jamie Lee and John Heder, Up Here (Hulu). She teaches and directs intimacy and violence in performance at NYU Tisch, National Theater Institute, Atlantic Theater School, AMDA, and Sarah Lawrence College. Judilewisockler.com
Caren Celine Morris (Production Stage Manager) (she/her/hers) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist from The Bronx. She aims to promote inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in all of her projects. Caren has worked on projects with The Tank, The Shed, Ping Chong & Company, HERE Arts Center, Audible @ Minetta Lane Theatre, NYC Civic Engagement Commission, The Public, and The Bushwick Starr.
