What We’re Up Against

Theresa Rebeck

(Playwright) is a prolific writer with success spanning theater, television, film, and literature. She has been named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek and The New York Times has referred to her as “one of her generation’s major talents.”

She is best known for her plays Seminar and Mauritius, which both premiered on Broadway, and her earlier works Spike Heels, Bad Dates and Omnium Gatherum (Pulitzer Finalist, co-written with Alex Gersten) and her TV show “Smash.”

Additional theater credits include: Downstairs (Dorset Theatre Festival); Dead Accounts (Music Box Theatre); The Scene, The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, and The Family of Mann (Second Stage); Seared (San Francisco Playhouse); The Nest (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); The Way of the World (Dorset Theatre Festival); Poor Behavior (Mark Taper Forum, Primary Stages); The Butterfly Collection and Our House (Playwrights Horizons); The Understudy (Roundabout Theatre Company); and View of the Dome (New York Theatre Workshop). Upcoming projects: Way of the World at the Folger Theatre. Theresa and composer Josh Schmidt are adapting the RKO film Dance, Girl, Dance as a stage musical, and she has created a stage adaptation of the fable Stone Soup with John Weidman. She is currently under commission by Roundabout Theater Company, La Jolla Playhouse and South Coast Rep.

Theresa adapted and directed the film version of Poor Behavior and directed her original screenplay for Trouble, starring Anjelica Huston and Bill Pullman, which premiered at the 2017 Seattle Film Festival. Other films include Harriet the Spy, Gossip, and the independent features Sunday on the Rocks and Seducing Charlie Barker, an adaptation of her play, The Scene. In addition to “Smash”, Ms. Rebeck has writing and producing credits for television projects including “Dream On”, “Brooklyn Bridge”, “L.A. Law”, “American Dreamer”, “Maximum Bob”, “First Wave”, “Third Watch”, “Canterbury’s Law”, “Smith”, “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” and “NYPD Blue”.

All of Ms. Rebeck’s past produced plays are published by Smith and Kraus as Theresa Rebeck: Complete Plays, Volumes I, II III, and IV and are available from Samuel French or Playscripts. Ms. Rebeck’s other publications are Free Fire Zone, a book of comedic essays about writing and show business. She has written for American Theatre Magazine and has had excerpts of her plays published in the Harvard Review. Ms. Rebeck’s first two novels, Three Girls and Their Brother and Twelve Rooms With A View, are published by Random House/Shaye Areheart Books in April 2008. Her most recent book, I’m Glad About You, was released to rave reviews at the top of 2016 and is published by Putnam.

Theresa has been honored to receive the National Theatre Conference Award, the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, a Lilly Award, an IRNE Award for Best New Play, an Eliot Norton Award, the Mystery Writer’s of America’s Edgar Award, the Writer’s Guild of America award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody. Ms. Rebeck is originally from Cincinnati and holds an MFA in Playwriting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, both from Brandeis University. She is a proud board member of PEN America and the Dramatists Guild, a Contributing Editor to the Harvard Review, an Associate Artist of the Roundabout Theatre Company, a Playwright Adviser and Board Member of the LARK, and has taught at Brandeis University and Columbia University. She is currently holds the Lyndall Finley Wortham Chair in the Performing Arts at University of Houston. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Adrienne Campbell-Holt

(Director) Adrienne is the Founding Artistic Director of Colt Coeur and the recipient of the 2018 Lucille Lortel Visionary Director Award. Upcoming: world premieres of Hatef**k by Rehana Lew Mirza (WP/Colt Coeur), andWe are Among Usby Stephen Belber (City Theater). Recent world premieres/productions: Downstairs,by Theresa Rebeck (Primary Stages),Thirst, by C. A. Johnson (Contemporary American Theater Festival), Zürich, by Amelia Roper (Colt Coeur/NYTW), What We’re Up Against by Theresa Rebeck (WP Theater), Empathitraxby Ana Nogueira (Colt Coeur), Cal in Camo (co-pro Rattlestick & Colt Coeur), Theresa Rebeck’s The Nest (Denver Theatre Company), One Child Born (Oberon at American Repertory Theater), How to Live on Earthby MJ Kaufman (Colt Coeur), Chiara Atik’s 52nd to Bowery (EST Marathon), Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel (Colt Coeur), Reunion by Greg Moss (South Coast Rep), Everything Is Oursby Nikole Beckwith (Colt Coeur), Recallby Eliza Clark (Colt Coeur),Fish Eye (Colt Coeur), and Seven Minutes in Heaven by Steven Levenson (Colt Coeur). Adrienne is currently developing the new musical Other World with Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, Ann McNamee & WETA Workshop, as well as Afterwords, with Zoe Sarnak and Emily Kaczmarek. BA Barnard College, Columbia University. She is also the director of #makeitfair

Skylar Astin

originated the role of Georg in Tony and Grammy Award winning musical Spring Awakening. Astin was most recently onstage in Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s God Bless You Mr. Rosewater at Encores! Off-Center at New York City Center. Earlier last year he starred as Tony in Carnegie Hall’s special production of West Side Story at the Knockdown Center. In film, Astin is best known for his break out role as Jesse in Universal’s Pitch Perfect and sequel Pitch Perfect 2. Other film credits include: Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, Sundance favorite Hamlet 2, Disney’s award winning animated feature, Wreck-It Ralph, and starring opposite Miles Teller in 21 and Over. Astin will next appear in Eric Bress’s Ghosts of War and the feature film Hot Air. He can currently be seen opposite Nick Nolte in the Epix TV series “Graves.” Previous television credits include the lead in sitcom “Ground Floor”, created by Bill Lawrence, and memorable roles on: HBO’s “Girls”, Fox’s “House M.D”, “Glee”, and AMC’s “Halt and Catch Fire.”

Marg Helgenberger

Emmy Award-winner and Golden Globe nominee Marg Helgenberger was last seen guest starring on the CBS series, “Under The Dome”.  In Fall 2016 she starred in the Arena Stage production of The Little Foxes Stage in Washington DC.  In Spring 2014 she was starring in the Barrington Theatre Company’s production of The Other Place.  Prior to that she costarred in the CBS drama series “Intelligence“, also starring Josh Holloway.  In 2013 she ended her twelfth season of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” for which she has earned two Emmy nominations. The critically acclaimed show airs Wednesday nights at 10:00PM on CBS and is executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.  Her character, Catherine Willows is a single mother working as a crime scene analyst on the graveyard shift in Las Vegas.

Marg was seen starring alongside Kevin Costner in MGM’s psychological thriller Mr. Brooks, about a man who occasionally falls under the spell of his murderous alter-ego. She costarred with Julia Roberts in the Universal hit drama, “Erin Brokovich”, as a woman dying of cancer due to a contaminated water source.  Marg also starred as Patsy Ramsey in the highly rated CBS miniseries, “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” based on the best selling book about the unsolved murder of Jon Benet Ramsey.

Jim Parrack

co-starred opposite Jared Leto in the hit Warner Bros feature Suicide Squad, reuniting him with director David Ayer for whom he co-starred in Columbia’s award-winning feature Fury alongside Brad Pitt and Shia LeBeouf.  Jim will next be seen in the independent feature films Tatterdemalion and Priceless. On stage, Jim received rave reviews as “Slim” alongside James Franco and Chris O’Dowd in the multi-award-nominated 2014 Broadway revival Of Mice and Men for director Anna D. Shapiro. Jim co-starred in the independent feature Wild Horses opposite Josh Hartnett and Robert Duvall (who also directed) and earlier co-starred opposite Duvall in the dramatic feature A Night in Old Mexico. Jim starred opposite James Franco (who also adapted and directed), Logan Marshall-Green and Tim Blake Nelson as “Cash” in As I Lay Dying, based on the novel by William Faulkner (2013 Cannes Film Festival). He was featured in the cult feature Child of God, also directed by James Franco, and costarred opposite Franco in Disney’s Annapolis, directed by Justin Lin. Previously, Jim co-starred opposite Aaron Eckhart and Michael Pena in Sony Pictures’ Battle of Los Angeles, directed by Jonathan Liebesman. Jim is probably best known for his award-winning turn as fan favorite “Hoyt Fortenberry” in HBO’s hit series “True Blood.”  He also played the title character “Guy Hastings” in a memorable episode of the Fox series “Alcatraz” for J.J. Abrams/Bad Robot, starred in a season-long arc on ABC’s “Resurrection” and was seen guest starring on the NBC series “Blacklist: Redemption.”

Krysta Rodriguez

was most recently seen on the small screen co-starring with John Lithgow on the NBC series “Trial & Error”. On television, Rodriguez is best known from her scene-stealing turn on the second season of NBC’s “Smash” as fan-favorite ‘Ana Vargas’. Other television credits include recurring roles on “Quantico, “Chasing Life” and guest starring roles on “Younger,” “The Mysteries of Laura,” “Married,” and “Gossip Girl”. On Broadway Rodriguez played Ilse in the critically acclaimed revival of Spring Awakening and headlined the original Broadway cast of First Date opposite Zachary Levi. Her extensive Broadway credits include original companies of The Addams Family, In the Heights, Spring Awakening, A Chorus Line (Revival) and Good Vibrations

Damian Young

Broadway: All My Sons, with Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, Sacrilege with Ellen Burstyn at Belasco Theatre. Off Broadway: The Night Heron (Atlantic Theatre Company), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (National Actors Theatre), Psych (Playwrights Horizons), Baby Anger (Playwrights Horizons), The Waiting Room (Vineyard Theatre), Nothing Sacred (Atlantic Theatre Company) and ten years with Cucaracha Theatre.

Recent and upcoming films: “Wonderstruck”, A+, “Catfight”, “We Only Know So Much”, “Birdman”, “Delivery Man”, “Druid Peak”, “Hairbrained”, “Sex and the City”, “Reunion”, “RSO”, “Everybody’s Fine”, “The Good Heart”, “Edge of Darkness”. Television: “Gotham” (FOX), “Mohammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” (HBO Films), “The Comeback, Comeback” (HBO), “The War Next Door” (USA), “The Comeback” (HBO), “Californication” (Showtime); recurring roles on “House of Cards” (Netflix), “The Good Wife” (CBS), “Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter” (Adult Swim), “Damages” (F/X), “The Adventures of Pete and Pete” (Nickelodeon), “Cosby”, “CSI Miami” (CBS) and “Law & Order” (NBC).

Segal NYC Productions

Jenna Segal heads SegalNYC, which develops and produces theater, film and digital projects (Gatherer Entertainment) with a focus on the 35+ female audience.  Ms. Segal was lead producer of the award winning musical GIGI (Kennedy Center, Broadway, Tony Awards). Other credits include: Les Liasons Dangereuses (Broadway); Small Mouth Sounds, What We’re Up Against (Off Broadway); and Black Dynamite (Film). Jenna is the Executive Producer of the short “Out on a Limb,” and the web series “Smart Cookin’,” “Morning Meds,” and “Hot Flash;” and Associate Producer on the web series “Lady Parts.” Jenna has been featured in Variety, The Star Ledger, The Bergen Record, and The Wall Street Journal as a new producer to watch. Jenna has three children and lives with her husband in New York City.