Get to Know the Cast of QUEENS

SOFIYA AKILOVA (Stage Direction) is a tv, film, and theatre actor, and a writer.  She emigrated from Uzbekistan to New York with her family in 1990. She attended LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts and completed her bachelor’s in English Literature at Queens College.  Sofiya is also an alumna of NYU Grad Acting. Recently, she has performed in productions at Yale Rep and The Old Globe Theatre. She has also appeared in the following television shows: Madam Secretary, TURN: Washington’s Spies, Allegiance, and Alpha House. Sofiya is a recent and proud member of the 52nd Street Project.

PAOLA LÁZARO (Isabela/Glenys) is an actress and playwright born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She holds a B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from SUNY Purchase College, M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University.  In 2015 she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in To the Bone at Cherry Lane Theatre. Lázaro was also in Martyna Majok’s John Who’s Here From Cambridge at EST. She received the Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence grant at the Atlantic Theater for 2016-2017 for her play Tell Hector I Miss Him, premiering next season at Atlantic. Her most recent play There’s Always the Hudson will have a reading at Labyrinth Theater in May as part of their Up Next Series. Paola was awarded the Arts Entertainment Scholarship Award from NHFA, a member of the Public Theater’s 2015 Emerging Writers Group and was selected Playwright-in-Residence for the Sundance Theater Lab in Morocco 2016.

MARJAN NESHAT (Aamani/Nasima) Recent theater credits include Irina in Three Sisters, Fallaci directed by Oskar Eustis, Scorched, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Aiesha Ghazali in The Near East, Masha in The Seagull with Dianne Wiest. She just finished work on the film The Book of Henry with Naomi Watts and a recurring role on the ABC drama “Quantico.” Other film and TV credits include a starring role in the independent film Almost in Love with Alan Cumming, RoboCop, Sex in the City 2, Funny in Farsi (directed by Barry Sonnenfeld), “Person of Interest,” “Royal Pains,” “Blue Bloods,” “Black Box,” “Unforgettable,” “Fringe,” multiple Law and Orders. She is a member of The Actors Center in NYC.

AMANDA QUAID (Inna) New York: The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons, world premiere by Madeleine George), Luck of the Irish (LCT3, Lortel nom), Cock (The Duke), A Public Reading…Walt Disney (Soho Rep, world premiere by Lucas Hnath), Pericles (Public, AEA St. Clair Bayfield Award), Equus (Broadway), The Illusion (Signature), Galileo (CSC), Happy Hour (Atlantic), The Witch of Edmonton (Red Bull), The Seagull (dir. Max Stafford-Clark), three plays at Irish Rep, most recently The Weir. Regional: Old Globe, Shakespeare Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Folger, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. TV/film: “Blue Bloods,” “Law & Order: SVU,” Non-Stop. Faculty: HB Studio, The Freeman Studio. Quaid directed her first short film, English, in 2014, which premiered at Cannes Short Film Corner and will screen in May as part of the New York Women in Film and Television’s Immigrant Experiences Series. For more info, visit amandaquaid.com.

ANA REEDER (Renia) Broadway: Big Knife, Hedda Gabler, Top Girls, Sight Unseen; Off-Broadway: Radiance, The Maids, Happy Hour, Living Room in Africa, The Wooden Breeks, Small Tragedy (Obie), Humble Boy, An Experiment with an Air Pump,Time of the Cuckoo, Some Voices, Killers and Other Family, Maid, Macbeth, Henry VIII, Hedda Gabler (NYTW); London: The Distance from Here (Almeida Theatre) Williamstown: A Streetcar Named Desire. Film: No Country for Old Men, The Locksmith (original title: Homewrecker/ Best of Next/Sundance), Acts of Worship (Independent Spirit Award Nomination/Best Actress, Best Actress/Santa Barbara Film Festival), Marie and Bruce, One for the Money. TV: HBO’s You Don’t Know Jack, Damages, Law & Order, Blue Bloods. BA: Middlebury College, MFA: NYU.

ANDREA SYGLOWSKI (Pelagiya/Lera) recently appeared in the world premiere productions of The Nest by Theresa Rebeck (The Denver Center) and Of Good Stock by Melissa Ross (South Coast Rep). Her 2014 production of Venus in Fur at the Huntington Theatre garnered her the 2014 Elliott Norton Award for Best Actress in a Large Theatre, and an IRNE Award for Best Actress. She has participated in new play development workshops at The Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, Labyrinth Theatre Company, Bay Street Theatre, The Lark, Ars Nova, Jewish Plays Project, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, The New York Society Library, and BAM.  Other credits include: Asking for Trouble (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Walk Through (Slate Theatre Company), A Flea in her Ear, Bully to You, Schmoozy Togetherness, White Trash Anthem (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Three Sisters, Loves Labours Lost, Elijah, Carve (Chautauqua Theatre Company) Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare at the Manor) TV: ‘The Good Wife,’ ‘How to Get Away with Murder,’ ‘Elementary.’ Film: Every New York City Party Happens in a Bathroom. Training: USC and The Juilliard School, class of 2013, where she was the proud recipient of the Robin Williams Scholarship.

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FINAL WEEK OF THE PIPELINE FESTIVAL

WEEK 5: April 21 – April 23

QUEENS

The award-winning playwright Martyna Majok unveils her latest work for Pipeline Festival audiences.

By Martyna Majok
Directed by Tamilla Woodard
Produced by Rachel Karpf Reidy

Starring Sofiya Akilova, Paola Lázaro, Marjan Neshat, Amanda Quaid, Ana Reeder, Andrea Syglowski

Martyna Majok, author of WP’s recent hit IRONBOUND, continues her exploration of the people on the fringes of society through a fierce and funny new play about immigrant women seeking more than the American Dream. Don’t miss this chance to see this award-winning playwright’s newest work in its earliest stages! #QueensPlay

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@WomensProject #PipelineFestival / #WPLab