Galatea

MJ Kaufman

(PLAYWRIGHT, They/Them) is a playwright and television writer from Portland, OR. Their plays include: Whisper’s Gone (Theatre Exile), Double Atlas (workshop at Playwrights Realm), Masculinity Max (Public Theater Studio production, Pride Plays ’20 reading), Sensitive Guys (InterAct Theater and numerous theaters and schools around the country) and A Walrus in the Body of a Crocodile (Clubbed Thumb). Their work has also been produced and developed at WP Theater, Huntington Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the New Museum, NAATCO, Playwrights Realm, Colt Coeur, Yale School of Drama and the Lark Play Development Center, as well as in Russian in Moscow and in Australia.

MJ received the 2017 Helen Merrill Emerging Writers Award, 2013 ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting, the 2013 Global Age Project Prize, and the 2010 Jane Chambers Prize in Feminist Theatre. MJ has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony and SPACE on Ryder Farm and is currently a resident playwright at New Dramatists.  MJ has been a member of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers’ Group, WP Theater Lab, a core playwright at InterAct Theatre and a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theater.

MJ curated the 2016 and 2017 seasons of Trans Theater Fest at The Brick and, along with Kit Yan, founded Trans Lab Fellowship, a program to support emerging transgender theater artists. They have worked as a writer for two seasons for Netflix. Since the COVID19 pandemic began, MJ has written zoom plays for New Dramatists and Play at Home, adapted their play Sensitive Guys for the internet and worked on an audio piece for New Dramatists Plays for the Ear initiative. An alum of Wesleyan University and Yale School of Drama. http://mjkaufman.com/

Will Davis

(DIRECTOR, He/Him) is a transgender director and choreographer focused on physically adventurous work for the stage. Off-Broadway credits include: Road Show (Encores! Off-Center); India Pale Ale (MTC); Bobbie Clearly (Roundabout Underground); Charm (MCC); Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb and Playwrights Horizons—Lucille Lortel nomination); and Duat (Soho Rep). Regional credits include: Spamtown,USA (Children’s Theater Company); Everybody (Shakespeare Theater Company); A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Long Wharf Theatre); The Carpenter (The Alley Theatre); Colossal (Olney Theatre Center and Mixed Blood Theater—Helen Hayes award for best direction); Evita (Olney Theatre Center—Helen Hayes award nomination); and multiple productions for ATC in Chicago where Davis also served as artistic director. He is an alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, the NYTW 2050 Directing Fellowship, the Brooklyn Art Exchange’s Artist in Residence program, and is currently a Princeton Arts Fellow.

Ty Defoe

(MELEBEUS / TELOSIA, He/Him/They/We/Us) (Giizhig) Oneida + Ojibwe Nations, is an interdisciplinary artist, writer/actor, director, and Grammy Award winner. Ty’s has an integral approach to artistic projects pulling in social justice messages rooted through words, music, literature, theatre, film.  Awards: Robert Rauschenberg Artist in Residence, Jonathan Larson Award. Works created: Red Pine, The Way They Lived, Ajijaak on Turtle Island, Hear Me Say My Name. All My Relations Collective—(DTWG, Public Theater, GIZHIBAA GIIZHIG | Revolving Sky at Under the Radar’s Incoming!). Movement Director: Mother Road, Dir. Bill Rauch (OSF), Manahatta, Dir. Laurie Woolery (OSF + Yale Rep), Choreographer for Tracy Lett’s, The Minutes (Broadway). Netflix Appearance: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Broadway: Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men, Dir. Anna Shapiro. Degrees: CalArts, Goddard College, + NYU Tisch. Lives in NYC, loves the color clear. tydefoe.com

Esco Jouléy

[NEPTUNE / CUPID, Esco] is an actor, singer, dancer, clown, movement artist, and creator located in New York City. Esco recently wrapped a role on the upcoming Sundance series STATE OF THE UNION, from creator Nick Hornby and directed by Stephen Frears. Recent credits include Starz BLINDSPOTTING, HBO’s HIGH MAINTENANCE, Netflix’s upcoming series INVENTING ANNA, Hulu’s MONSTERLAND and Bravo’s IN A MAN’S WORLD, where they appeared as a movement coach. Esco’s theatre credits include: Interstate, Runaways, Galatea, The Demise (Magic Theater Player), Beowulf. Esco was a resident actor at the historic Barter Theater for three and a half years and is an alum of the ABC Discovers Showcase. As a movement artist, Esco is the creator and performer of “One”, a mute character that lives in the same world as the great artists Charlie Chaplin, Burt Williams, and Harpo Marx. Esco has used this character to explore the language of movement and how one would communicate with people if one could not speak. More information about Esco and their work can be found at escojouley.com, @escojouley, onezlife.com, and @onezlife.

Jo Lampert

(PHYLLIDA, She/Her) has been seen Off-Broadway in Hundred Days (New York Theatre Workshop), Joan of Arc: Into the Fire (title role at the Public Theater, Lucille Lortel Award nomination), Rimbaud in NY (Brooklyn Academy of Music), New York Animals (New Ohio), Iphigenia in Aulis (Classic Stage Company), and Dance, Dance Revolution (Ohio Theater). Selected regional appearances include Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Marie Antoinette (American Repertory Theatre/Yale REP), Prometheus Bound (A.R.T.), and The Last Goodbye (Williamstown Theater Festival). She was seen in Japan in Elizabeth Swados’s The La Mama Cantata and on the 2014 tUnE-yArDs world tour in support of their album “Nikki Nack”. Jo’s film and television credits include Amazon’s Transparent: Musical Finale, Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, Hulu’s The Path, The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien and the upcoming season of HBO’s BETTY.  

Pooya Mohseni

(VENUS / RAMIA / HEBE, She/Her) is an Iranian-American actor, writer, filmmaker & Transgender activist. She’s co-producer/star/writer of “Transit “, a short film about love between a trans woman and a cis man, coming out in 2021. Her stage performances  include “She,He,Me” by Raphael Aime Khouri, for National Queer Theater, dir Sivan Battat, “Our Town” in Pride Plays, dir Jenna Worsham, “Hamlet” in Play On Shakespeare festival, dir Ellen McLaughlin, an award winning one woman show “One Woman“, in United Solo at The Theatre Row, dir Joan Kane, “Galatea“, dir Mo Zhou for the WP Pipeline festival and “The Good Muslim” dir William Carden at EST. She has guest starred on “Law & Order: SVU “ dir Mariska Hargitay, “Falling Water” on USA, “Madam Secretary” and a recurring guest star on the drama “Big Dogs” on Amazon Prime. Her newest feature film “See You Then” dir Mari Walker will make its premier at SXSW, Atlanta FIlm Festival, DisOrient and others this year. She is a member of the advisory council for Ackerman Institute’s Gender and Family Project.

Aneesh Sheth

(DIANA / AUGUR, She/Her) is a singer, actress, producer, director, writer, and transgender activist. Born in Pune, India and relocating to the United States at an early age, she quickly found a passion for music. After receiving her BFA, she enjoyed the tour life performing in various musicals including the Broadway National Tour of A.R. Rahman’s Bombay Dreams as Sweetie in 2006. In 2008 Aneesh returned to New York University to pursue a Master’s Degree in Social Work and dedicated her time throughout the next few years working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth as a counselor with The Trevor Project and a patient advocate at Beth Israel Medical Center.  After spending her life thus far in the Big Apple, she relocated to San Francisco in early 2010 and then to Seattle in 2013. She returned to the stage working with several regional companies including PlayGround SF, Playwrights Foundation, The Asian American Theatre Company, Village Theater and The 5th Avenue Theatre. Now residing back in her hometown of New York City, she is most notably known as Carly in the critically acclaimed Public Theater production of Southern Comfort, ​which garnered six nominations, two Lucille Lortel wins and a New York Times Critic’s Pick. She has since returned to the Public as part of their Mobile Unit, Public Studio, Public Forum and Shakespeare Initiatives programs, as well as added NYMF, NAMT and Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab to her resume. Aneesh made her network debut as a guest star on NBC’s Thursday night sitcom Outsourced (2011) and has since appeared in Hulu’s Difficult People, HBO’s High Maintenance and NBC’s New Amsterdam. She also had a cameo in IFC’s A Kid Like Jake, alongside Jim Parsons. She’s currently a recurring guest star on Marvel’s Jessica Jones on NETFLIX as “Gillian”, assistant to the titular character. Along with her work in theatre, film, and television, she is an event host, trans activist, panelist and committee member with many national organizations. In March 2013, Advocate Magazine honored Aneesh Sheth on their 40 Under 40 List and in January 2020 she became the recipient of the HRC Visibility Award in Cincinnati. She is currently represented by Take3Talent and managed by 1022m Management.

Futaba Shioda

(GALATEA, He/Him) is excited to return to WP Theater with Galatea, the first play he performed in after coming out as transgender back in 2018. Other favorite acting credits include the 25th Anniversary Tour of RENT and new works with the Kennedy Center, Barrington Stage Company, SoHo Rep, Ogunquit Playhouse, and New Dramatists as well as his screen debut in the series Sideways Smile. Offstage, he works to support transgender and gender expansive youth at the Gender & Family Project and to uplift new theatrical voices at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. A 2020 recipient of the Paul Robeson Award, Futaba dreams for us all to be free of capitalist cycles of oppression. www.futabashioda.com

Ianne Fields Stewart

(CULTURAL COMPETENCY CONSULTANT, They/Them/She/Her) is a black, queer, lesbian, and nonbinary transfeminine New York-based storyteller working at the intersection of theatre and activism. Their work and she are dedicated to interrupting the exclusivity of luxury by making things like entertainment, nourishment, and self-care accessible to the most marginalized in their community. In the summer of 2017, Ianne was selected out of over 500 applicants to be one of the 15 US Fellows for Humanity in Action’s 2017 John Lewis Fellowship. During this fellowship, Ianne studied and organized with contemporary and historic civil rights leaders in Atlanta, GA exploring the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and its roots in present day social justice movements. Since then, Ianne has developed a cultural competency consulting and teaching artist practice which spans from talkback facilitation to teaching artistry to community outreach and organizing. Spaces that have benefited from Ianne’s practice include: The Alliance of Resident Theatres, Lincoln Center Theater, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Music Theatre Factory, NYC charter schools, and the Rose M. Singer Center on Riker’s Island. As a performer, Ianne has worked consistently in productions at NYC venues such as: Joe’s Pub, Dixon Place, La Mama, and many more. Ianne was personally requested by Sara Ramirez (Grey’s Anatomy) to play her love interest in an interracial polyamorous couple of color in the  3-Time Emmy-Nominated web series The Feels. Other Film/TV Credits include: Dash & Lily (Roberta), The Bold Type (Chloe Blair), and Pose (Pretty Bartender). Ianne is also the founder of The Okra Project which seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever they can reach them. Ianne’s platform substantially grew when she co-organized Brooklyn Liberation:  A Rally for Black Trans Lives and delivered a speech in front of 15,000 people who gathered to march for Black lives.

TL Thompson

(TITERYS / EUROTA, They/Them) Broadway: “Straight White Men” Person In Charge, Second Stage Theater. Off Broadway: ”Is This A Room?” Agent Taylor, Vineyard Theater. “Lessons In Survival” Bayard Rustin, Virtual Vineyard Theater. “You Were Mine” Noah, Kane Repertory Theatre. “Waafrika 123” Aweeno, Criminal Queerness Festival. TL is also the voice of Niko, a trans character in the Magic The Gathering video game. Podcasts: “Meet Cute” Podcast. “Adventures in New America”. “Welcome to NightVale”. Webseries: “THESE/THEMS”, TI, Dir. Jett Garrison. ”Dinette Season 2” Nun, Dir. Shaina Feinberg “THE HUNTED” Nic, Dir. Crystal Arnette. Films “While We Breathe” Miles, NAACP fundraiser for BLM. “Flu$h” Wrex, Dir. Heather Acs. “Friday Afternoon” Eli, Dir. Paige Campbell. TL is also NY Neo Futurist, who performs frequently in The Infinite Wrench, an ongoing attempt to perform 30 plays in one hour. TLThompsonactor.com.