Stephen Dexter
Stephen Dexter (Torvald Helmer) Off-Broadway: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (La MaMa), Our Lady Of 121st Street (The Actors Studio), Turn Me Loose (Westside Theatre), AZAK (Rattlestick), Pearl (Davenport Theatre) Tour: Hikobae (Will-Do Production, Japan) TV/Film: "Billions" (Showtime), "Being", "True Believers" (upcoming). Audiobook narrator for Audible.com. Training: Stella Adler Studio Of Acting (3-Year Conservatory), Terry Schreiber, Larry Moss. Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio, Rockwell Fellowship Recipient (Primary Stages). SAG-AFTRA/AEA. www.stephendexter.com
Cheryl B. Engelhardt
Cheryl B. Engelhardt is a composer who has written scores for many documentaries and feature-length films, dozens of nationally-airing commercials including Honey Nut Cheerios and Lowes, and over sixty web series and parodies for the comedy site CollegeHumor.com. Her music career began as a young piano prodigy whose first love was working with ensembles. She studied orchestration at Juilliard School of music after graduating from Cornell University. It was at Cornell where she discovered a cappella and became the musical director of the school’s oldest all-female a cappella group. Cheryl also performed with a madrigal choir in the White House, and became a founding member of and composer for the internationally acclaimed non-profit choir Voices21C. The group recently returned from a tour in Israel/Palestine and continue to perform around the globe for diverse audiences with messages of social justice. Cheryl is an accomplished singer-songwriter who has recorded four piano-pop albums to date, toured the United States and Europe with her band, and garnered over 40 TV show placements of her songs. In addition to her film, commercial, choral, and songwriting projects, Cheryl musical directed Little Women and La Cage Aux Faux in the Hudson Valley and has participated in multiple other theater productions on stage. Stemming from the idea that work can be play, the process of crafting a creative career is a passion of Cheryl’s. She launched In The Key Of Success, a website of resources for musicians developing their own careers. She has spoken at the popular music festivals SXSW, the ASCAP EXPO, the Millennium Music Conference, and dozens of colleges including her own alma mater. She founded the musician's lifestyle blog Living On Gigging and hosts the music business podcast Key Conversations. Cheryl lives in the Hudson Valley with her mountain guide husband and basset hound, and is currently working on composing a choral suite and writing a musical. Her website is www.cbemusic.com.
Sammi Katz
Sammi is an NYC-based actor and writer. She received her B.A. in Drama with honors from Vassar College. In addition to Vassar, Sammi has studied at the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Stella Adler, Complicite in London, ESPA at Primary Stages, among others. Recent credits include For Annie (The Hearth), Descendants of the Chalice (Harlem Repertory Theatre), The Tempest (The Hive), Rhinoceros (Gene Frankel Theatre), Anergos (Dixon Place) and All the Usual Ways to Bruise an All Too Fragile Ego (The Wild Project). www.sammikatz.com
Shane Killoran
SHANE KILLORAN - (Literary Manager, Resident Dramaturg, - The Private Theatre) received her B.F.A in Acting from New York University with a heavy concentration in Women's Studies. After acting for several years in New York and Los Angeles, she realized she enjoyed the rehearsal process more than performing. This realization took her to the University of London where she pursued post-graduate work in theatre including her Doctoral candidacy which focused primarily on devised performance. Upon her return from London, Shane produced television for several years. She has since left the world of TV production to focus full-time on writing and her theatrical projects. In 2012, Shane served as Co-Creator and Dramaturg for the Private Theatre's site-specific production of Strindberg's, Playing With Fire. In 2013, she adapted and served as production Dramaturg for the Indian play, Sakaram Binder at MAD Playhouse Theater. In July of 2016, Nepenthe, a show she conceived, co-created, dramaturged and produced, premiered at the Women and War Festival in London, United Kingdom. She is currently working on Drink Me as a Co-Creator and Actress (Blythe the Spirits), The Trilogy Project as Co-Creator and Dramaturg (Blythe the Spirits). as Dramaturg: A Doll's House (Private Theatre) and The Erotica Project (The Private Theatre).
Emily Meister
Emily Meister is a Los Angeles based multi-media dance theatre artist, creator, choreographer, performer, director, producer and healing arts practitioner. Emily has years of experience devising theatrical, site-specific and interactive works, both intimate and large scale. She has created and presented numerous solo, group and cinematic pieces of her own choreography and movement direction in Los Angeles, nationally and abroad. Emily is the founder and Artistic Director of Wonder House, an experiential artist and production collective, and hub for her live works and cinematic creations. She is the Associate Director of The Artists’ Lab at AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Hollywood, CA., which supports students in the development of their own creative voices and work as writers, directors, choreographers, filmmakers and producers. She is also the Dance Theatre Senior Experience Manager and Mentor, which supports faculty and guests artists in their curriculum, and the dancers in their final year in professional industry preparation and personal branding. She currently teaches a physical theatre workshop monthly with Gema Galiana at Pieter Performance Space, and is a Reiki Energy and sound-healing practitioner in Los Angeles. A graduate from Connecticut College with a BA in Dance Theatre Performance and Choreography, she has had the pleasure of working with Galiana + Nikolchev’s The Useless Room, Annie Saunders/Wilderness, HomeLA, Meredith Monk, Jeremy Nelson Dance, Fire Trial Films, Roya Carreras, Riactor, Robin Bisio, Nugent Dance, Catherine Bennett, Santa Barbara Summer Dance, and Motion Theater Dance Company. Emily is thrilled to have the opportunity to devise the movement language and choreography for John Gould Rubin’s adaption of A Doll’s House with the Private Theatre in their 2018 Marble House Project Residency. She is a life adventurer, a storyteller and a seeker. Her passion lies in connecting with people, creating worlds, collaborating with artists, and making site-responsive work and movement film stories. She draws inspiration from environmental landscapes, human and animal behavior, the hauntingly dark and the eerily beautiful. It is in her nature to explore and collect. Her movement aesthetic originates from a sensory-based exploratory process, and listening/reacting to an environment and others. Her process investigates thematic concepts and relationships, while leaving room for interpretation when it comes to the perceived story. She is grounded in a place of wonder and discovery, and is in a constant state of exploration of various ways of being, both mentally and physically. A steward of the physical arts and healing arts, she dives deep into investigation, and integrates these elements into her process and artistic practice. www.emilymeister.com
Vayu O’Donnell
Vayu O’Donnell is an actor/writer newly based in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of Yale University and NYU Graduate Acting program. His credits include: BROADWAY: Golden Boy (Lincoln Center, Dir. Bartlet Sher) and Man And Boy (Roundabout, Dir. Maria Aitken), LOS ANGELES: Tape (Aquila Morong Studio, Dir. Jeff Ward) NEW YORK: Cherry Smoke (Working Theater, Dir. Tamilla Woodard), The Poor of New York (Connolley Theater, Dir. Tyne Rafaeli), Jester’s Dead (The PIT), L(y)re (Ars Nova), Desperate Writers (Union Sq. Theater), Dance Dance Revolution (Les Freres, Dir. Alex Timbers), Perfect Harmony (Theatre Row), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Poor Tom Productions, Dir. Moritz VonStupenagel) REGIONAL: Shakespeare Theater D.C., Old Globe Theater, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Cleveland Playhouse/Buffalo Studio Arena, Williamstown Theater Festival), FILM/TV: Survival Skills; Mr. Talented; Veil; I Just Want My Pants Back; The Weekend; Suzanne and Sharif; USMC; Created, and co-wrote the web-show “80/20″ with Christopher Oscar Pena. www.vayuodonnell.com www.8020show.com. Thanks always to Paloma, Auntie & Unkie, Mom, Seamons and Lazo.
Chuk Obasi
Chuk Obasi is an actor/director, dancer/choreographer, and writer/poet with over ten years of professional experience nationally and internationally. He is also a teaching artist and public speaker, having participated in speaking engagements and artistic residencies on various topics and artistic disciplines at locations across the country. Obasi Holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from SUNY Geneseo, where he studied communication with a double minor in musical theatre and dance. Obasi currently serves as Artist-in-Residence at Intersections International and Choreographer for STAR Theatre at the Director’s Company. He has also recently worked with the National Dance Institute (Teaching Artist), Village Playback Theatre (Performer), and Galli Theatre (Actor). Recent works include one-man play The Actual Dance (performer); Music concert A Drink with Death (Lyricist) at Feinstein’s/54 Below; Critically acclaimed play Uniform Justice (Playwright/ Director), which he produced at the 2015 NY International Fringe Festival; Award-winning Feature films “The Depths” and “79 Parts” (Actor); And short film Rhubarb (Lead Actor). He has also been recently seen performing original spoken word poetry for the Diamond Empowerment Fund 2016 and 2017 Galas in Las Vegas and at The Declaration Initiative 2016 Conference in Washington, DC. Obasi is also a social justice advocate, with much of his work exploring social themes. He has taught workshops on using art for social justice for colleges, high schools, and professional organizations primarily in the Northeast US region - most recently including Drew University, Fieldston Ethical Culture, Humanities Preparatory Academy, and Girl Be Heard. A New York native raised in the Bronx, Obasi currently resides in Manhattan with his wife and two sons. Twitter: @ChukObasi
Adriana Rossetto
Adriana is an international actress with a predilection for raw, socially involved work with avant-garde esthetics. Her favorite credit is “NoWhere|NowHere”, a devised play about the role of the immigrant artist which she created and produced (TheaterLab, NowHere Collective). She graduated from the conservatory program at the Stella Adler Studio, class of 2014. Before coming to New York, she attended Bocconi University, in Milan, where she was a permanent member of the Bocconi Theatre company, and where she co-founded the Bocconi International Theatre Group and produced its first season debuting with Neil Simon’s Rumors. Recent credits include A Doll’s House (Dorset Theatre Festival reading series) and There's Something About America (a stage reading at The Actors Studio) Adriana is a resident actress and Director of Development at John Gould Rubin’s The Private Theatre, resident actress and board member at Vieve Price's TEA Creative and Artistic Associate of Valeria Orani’s Umanism. Past training include the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) and NIDA (Sydney).
John Gould Rubin
John Gould Rubin (Director) is Artistic Director of The Private Theatre, for which he mounted a radical, site-specific, Hedda Gabler and Strindberg’s Playing with Fire graphically produced at The Box, a notorious burlesque house. Recently he created and directed Turn Me Loose about the life of Dick Gregory, (Finalist for the Joe Calloway Award for Excellence in Directing) off Broadway and at The Wallis Annenberg Center in Los Angeles with Joe Morton; both American Buffalo with Treat Williams and Stephen Adly Guirgis and Outside Mullingar with Michael Hayden and Mary Bacon at The Dorset Theater Festival and Michael Ricigliano’s play, Queen for a Day with David Proval and Vinnie Pastore off-Broadway; Billy Hayes’ one-man true story in Riding The Midnight Express off-Broadway, in LA, Edinburgh and at the Soho Theater in London; The Fartiste, off-Broadway and Double Indemnity for the Old Globe in San Diego. He was co-Artistic and Executive Director of LAByrinth Theater Company (w/John Ortiz and Phillip Seymour Hoffman,) for which he directed eight shows including premieres by John Patrick Shanley and Erin Cressida Wilson, produced Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train (for LAByrinth, off-B’way, in Edinburgh, at the Donmar Warehouse and on The West End) and Our Lady of 121st Street (for LAByrinth and Off-B’way.) Other recent New York Work includes: The Cherry Orchard with Ellen Burstyn, at The Actor’s Studio; and a dual-theater production of The Seagull (at the Harold Clurman Lab.) He directed Peer Gynt with wheel-chair-using British actor, Neil Hancock, for The International Ibsen Festival in Oslo, and a bilingual workshop of Ximena Escalante’s Electra Despierta at Cal Arts. He wrote and performed in Karole Armitage’s multi-media show, The Predators’ Ball, which premièred at The Pergola Theater in Florence, Italy, and at The Next Wave Festival at BAM. With The Private Theatre he is presently devising a large-scale work about American Political Polarization based on the consciousness of conflict philosophy of Barnard Lonergan - Rocco, Chelsea, Adriana, Sean, Claudia, Gianna, Alex - and a radical new version of A Doll House by Royston Coppenger. He also produced the tour of Travis Preston’s one-man Macbeth with Stephen Dillane accompanied by a jazz trio, to London, Sydney, Australia and New Zealand. Theprivatetheatre.org
Liz Toonkel
Liz Toonkel is a Los Angeles based artist working in performance, theater and film. Her practice deals with ideas of absence and presence as they relate to the representation and existence of the female/feminine. She has recently performed at Honor Fraser Gallery, Perform Chinatown and LTD Gallery. Liz earned her BFA at New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts in Film & Television Production with a minor in Gender & Sexuality and holds a dual MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Art & Technology and Scenic Design. She also has a website: www.liztoonkel.com
Nabil Viñas
Nabil Viñas, an NYC actor, played Benito Mussolini in the Emmy-nominated miniseries The World Wars (History) and has a leading role in the award-winning film Tomorrow Ever After, which played a limited theatrical run in spring 2017. He also wrote and produced the short film Come Back Hailey which was successfully crowdfunded and played several festivals in New York including Big Apple, Queens World and Bronx International. Nabil was named BEST ACTOR by Atlas & Aeris, an international magazine for independent film for his work in The Cat’s Cradle. Other Acting Awards include BEST DUO (Sanford Int’l Film Fest, The Cat’s Cradle) and BEST ENSEMBLE (Idyllwild Int’l Festival of Cinema, Things I Don’t Understand). His work has inspired writer-directors to create projects and roles specifically for him, including Ela Thier with Tomorrow Ever After, and David Spaltro with his indie festival success Things I Don’t Understand (11 BEST FEATURE and 2 AUDIENCE CHOICE Awards). With a background in theatre, Nabil is an official member of the critically acclaimed Barefoot Theatre Company, Poetic Theater Productions, and a co-founding member of The Seven Collective. Since 2012 he’s played the central role in the award-winning play Goliath (Poetic Theater Productions) where his heart-breaking performance as an Iraq War veteran continues to impact audiences and veterans around the country. He’s played lead roles in numerous other theatrical productions including Djla Wal Furat: Between the Tigris and the Euphrates (Poetic Theater Productions), Cadence: Home (TE’A Project), and Closer (The Seven Collective). Nabil is a native New Yorker, born and raised in Washington Heights, and a proud son of Dominican parents from Moca in the Dominican Republic. His father named him Nabil (meaning ‘noble’ in Arabic) after Nabil-i-A’zam of the Bahaí Faith, the youngest of the world’s independent religions, which preaches peace and unity for all people. After studying theater at The City College of New York, Nabil co-founded The Seven Collective, a group of New York performance artists and men of color with whom he has produced numerous plays, events and educational workshops. Together with Free Arts NYC, they currently bring arts and education to underserved children from schools and foster homes around the city. Nabil has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and took part in launching the UN Women campaign #HeForShe, an initiative encouraging men to stand up for gender equality. As an actor and filmmaker, amplifying the voices and stories of women on screen has been an important part of his mission as an artist. As an arts educator, Nabil has facilitated filmmaking workshops at The Cinema School, the nation’s first film high school. He’s taught acting classes at The Independent Film School, and has worked as part of the Transformative Justice Team at The Bronx Academy for Software Engineering (BASE), specializing in conflict resolution and mentorship. He continues this work today with the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. NABILVINAS.COM
