LAURA BRIENZA (Playwright)
"Laura Brienza has vision, talent, a unique point of view, and an exciting dynamic voice. She's also got a playwright's ability to make her audience think, without preaching at them. She's a real find."
-nytheatre.com
Laura Brienza is a New York City-based playwright and screenwriter. Most recently, her play Old Love/New Love was developed by Luna Stage, headlined by Lynn Cohen ("Sex and the City"). Her new musical Bacha Posh , investigating the high-stakes world of cross-dressing in Afghanistan, is being developed by the Lark Play Development Center. Brienzas other plays include War Zones , which played the Capital and New York City fringe festivals in 2010. Investigating male eating disorders and the spectrum of masculinity in the US, War Zones was called "piercing and poetic" by Talkin Broadway and "the perfect FringeNYC offering" by nytheatre.com. Brienzas work has also been developed by the Naked Angels and the Kennedy Center. Directing credits include the one-woman show What's A Girl To Do When It's Time To Put Down The Drink? at DC's H Street Playhouse, which has gone on to appear in the Capital and Chicago Fringe Festivals ( www.tarahandron.com ). Assistant Directing credits include Eurydice for Derek Goldman at Round House Theatre and Urinetown for 5th Floor Productions. She is the author of the news and poetry project All The Poems That Are Fit To Print . She studied playwriting at Georgetown University under Karen Zacarias ( Legacy of Light ) and directing under Derek Goldman ( In Darfur ), where her favorite directing credits included The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl and The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler.
REGINALD L. DOUGLAS (Director)
"We are impressed by Reginald's conviction that artists are community leaders and that theater is an important instrument for social change. He speaks passionately about using his work as an urgent articulation and excavation of personal identity. "
-Lloyd Suh, Onsite Program Director, Lark New Play Development Center
Reginald L. Douglas is the 2011 Van Lier Directing Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center. Directing credits include: NYC: WOOD (NYU MFA Thesis production), Flash for Fantasy (Special Sauce Company), Fold the Close (The Access Theatre), The Sweat (Emerging Artists Theatre), The Body Washer (Rapscallions), Sarah Opts Out, The Hedge Fun, Small World and others; McCarter Theatre: Amaris Tomorrow (Youth Ink Festival); Georgetown University: Marcus Gardley's epic And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi (DC premiere), The House of Blue Leaves, Brill. Reginald has assistant directed for Emily Mann, Sam Buntrock, Daniel Beaty, Ethan McSweeny, Michael Unger, Peter DuBois, Jo Bonney, Lynn Nottage, and others, and worked at several notable theaters including Second Stage Theatre, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company and McCarter Theatre, where he recently served as a directing and producing assistant for Artistic Director Emily Manns 20th Anniversary season. A nominee for the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundations prestigious Gielgud and Ockrent Fellowships, Reginald will next direct the premiere production of Crossing Verrezano by Anthony Fusco for the Riant Theatre (July 2011) and the premiere production of Scared of Sarah by award-winning writer Laura Brienza in the NYC Fringe Festival (August 2011). This summer, Reginald will also serve as the Assistant Director on the world premiere production of Zach Braff's All New People, directed by Peter DuBois (Second Stage Theatre, June 2011).
CAROLYN DAUCHER (Lily)
"...she possesses a captivating vulnerability onstage. She digs deep into her characters, and her performances are marked by a striking soulfulness. She doesn't judge the characters she plays, but presents their raw humanity. The result is a living, breathing person onstage, not a facade."
-Caleb Green, Screenwriter/Director
Carolyn Daucher is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with an ever-helpful B.A. in Political Science, and currently studies at T. Schreiber Studio under Peter Jensen and Page Clements. NYC credits include Cedar City Falls: a Midwest Conflict (prod. Liz Tuccillo/John Ruocco) and Sex, Love, and Sometimes (45th St. Theatre). Carolyn is the writer and co-star of the upcoming web series The Changs , as well as the author of the blog Bad TV for Embarrassed People .
NATE GRAMS (Sam)
"Grams has a powerful presence on stage physically, vocally and emotionally. Confusion and assurance play through Grams performance like alternating, blinking lights."
-Review of Savage in Limbo, by Andrew S. Hughes, South Bend Tribune
Nate Grams is an actor from Seattle. New York Theatre includes Loves Labours Lost and Three Sisters (Riverside Theatre, directed by Andrei Serban), AK-47 Sing-Along (FringeNYC, directed by Lucy Cashion), and Endgame (directed by Ulla Wolcz), and Blood Wedding (directed by Kon Yi). He has also had the pleasure of working with a number of emerging playwrights on new works, including Screaming with Maria (by John Douglas Weidner), Snow Fleas (by Otso Huopaniemi), Looking for Love; or The Centaur Play (by James Ryan Caldwell), Slip Her a Mickey (by Erin Moughon), and The Waking Edge (by Samara Weiss). MFA Columbia University.
BRENNA PALUGHI (Sarah)
"Brenna Palughi will burn up the stage tonight at the wonderful theatrical improv show Naked in a Fishbowl"
-bestnewyorkcomedy.com
Brenna Palughi is a founding member of Naked in a Fishbowl , an improvised live sitcom and web series on which she plays Sophie. Her credits span independent films, television shows, web-series, off-Broadway, regional and downtown theaters. Favorite roles include: Zelda Fitzgerald in Muse, the title role in Phedre (Ted Hughes trans.), Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream , Queen Elizabeth in Orlando, originated roles in 99 Ways to Fuck a Swan by Kim Rosenstock, Babs the Dodo by Michael Mitnick and Flowers by Jose Rivera (YSD), Natasha in Rough Crossing , Lulu in Cabaret (Venus Rising Co., CA) and Sarah in The Lover (Barnstormers, NH). Film credits include, Goodnight Sweetheart, What Men Talk About, Synecdoche, NY and She She . She is also a director/ choreographer. MFA, Yale School of Drama. AEA/SAG www.brennapalughi.com
MICHAEL BRIENZA (Graphic Designer) is an artist whose work has been featured in numerous theatrical productions and the worlds of digital art, advertising, and graphic novels. You can contact Michael at: antivanilla6_gmail.com
JUSTIN DEWEY (Marketing Assistant) is a graduate of the University of Iowa. Sincemoving to New York he has worked with Abrams Artists Agency and The Lark PlayDevelopment Center.
DELANEY GIBSON (Stage Manager) is currently in her last year at Teaneck High School as an Arts Academy student,majoring in technical theatre and design. For the past four years, Delaney has been studying technicaltheatre extensively, working closely with The Garage Theatre Group, under the direction of her mentor,Michael Bias. With Garage, she has stage managed over ten productions, and designed lights for three. Delaney has also worked with Teaneck New Theater, as both a stage manager and a makeup artist. Aside from her technical work, she has studied Shakespeare and text analysis with the Joseph Papp Public Theater for the past three years, and studies dance at Broadway Dance Center with noted choreographers such as Laurie Ann Gibson, and Gregory Hines. Delaney is currently employed at the NEW 42ND STREET, INC, in the Studio Operations department.
GARY SLOOTSKIY lootskiy (Lighting Design) has designed Poe a Fever Dream (11:11 Theatre),The Maids, Time Remembered, Confessions of the Last Virgin Maria (Boston
University). Assistant Lighting Design: All New People (Second Stage), Carmen
(Boston Lyric Opera) and Sons of the Prophet (Huntington Theatre/Roundabout).
http://www.garyslootskiy.com
