Elise Thoron’s music theater pieces have been produced in the United States, Europe, Japan, Cuba: Green Violin, music by Frank London of the Grammy award winning Klezmatics, (Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays); Prozak and the Platypus, music by Jill Sobule (also CD/graphic novella); Charlotte: Life? Or Theater?  based on paintings by Charlotte Salomon, music by Gary Fagin. Recycling: washi tales with distinguished Japanese paper artist Kyoko Ibe and traditional Japanese musicians.  Her Afro-Cuban Yiddish opera Hatuey: Memory of Fire with composer Frank London had its North American premiere at Peak Performances (2018), after a first Spanish language production at Opera de la Calle in Havana (2017), and will next be seen in Miami. For over twenty years, Elise created cross-cultural exchanges with Russian and American theater artists; she adapted and directed The Great Gatsby in Russian at a The Pushkin Theater in Moscow, where it played for over nine years. As Associate Artistic Director at American Place Theatre, Elise developed and directed many new plays, and co-founded Literature to Life, a highly successful theater literacy program now in its third decade nationwide.  For Lit to Life she has adapted Diaz’sThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk, Lowry’s The Giver, Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, and developed County of Kings with Tony award winning spoken-word poet, Lemon Andersen, which went on to the Public Theater and venues around the world.  Her translations of Russian plays are produced and published in the United States and Canada.   www.elisethoron.com

Julie Felise Dubiner is the former Associate Director of American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle. While at OSF, Julie served as dramaturg for Beauty and the Beast; The Wiz; Sweat, The Cocoanuts; The Liquid Plain; and Party People. At Actors Theatre of Louisville, she collaborated on more than 40 productions and projects in the regular season and the Humana Festival, and co-created Rock & Roll: The Reunion Tour. In Philadelphia, she was project manager of the musical The Rosenbach Company and dramaturg at the Prince Music Theater. In Chicago, Julie freelanced with Defiant Theatre, blue star performance company, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and others. She has been a guest dramaturg at the Kennedy Center and KCACTF, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the New Harmony Project and elsewhere. Julie is the co-editor of two anthologies of Humana Festival plays; co-author of The Process of Dramaturgy: A Practical Guide; and a contributor to The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy, Innovation in Five Acts: Strategies for Theatre and Performance, HowlRound, the LMDA Source Book; and is a Kilroys nominator. Julie holds a BA from Tufts University and an MFA from Columbia University.

Avital Shira is a theatre artist and community organizer, currently pursuing an MFA in directing and certificate in arts administration at Boston University. Recent credits including directing Sarah B. Mantell’s EVERYTHING THAT NEVER HAPPENED (Boston University), MY FAIR LADY (Boston University), Laura Neill’s WINTER PEOPLE (Boston Playwrights Theatre), CYMBELINE (Boston University), INTIMATE APPAREL (Boston University), LIFEBOAT (Corrib Theatre), BETWEEN FRIENDS (Sycamore Theatre Co @ The Brick), and LOVE’S LABOURS LOST (Post 5). This summer, Shira will be directing a staged reading of BISLAND & BLY, a new musical Susannah Jones and Marialena DiFabbio for NYMF. Shira holds a degree in Theatre Studies and English literature from Yale University, where she was awarded the James S. Metcalfe Prize for theatre and the Branford Arts Prize, and is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. www.avitalshira.com
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Estefanía Fadul is a Colombian-born, NH-raised, NYC-based stage director and producer. Recent directing includes the world premieres of Christina Quintana’s AZUL (Southern Rep) and SCISSORING (INTAR), Stefan Ivanov’s THE SAME DAY (Sfumato Theatre, Bulgaria), James Anthony Tyler’s AROUND 2 (KeenTeens), and the Spanish-language musical ÓYE OYA by Rebecca Martínez and Rodolfo Ortega (Milagro). Other credits include AGENT 355 by Preston Max Allen and Jessica Kahkoska (Musical Theatre Factory, upcoming Chautauqua Theatre Company), PRANAYAMA by James Anthony Tyler (Juilliard), and ASI VAN LOS FANTASMAS DE MEXICO by Matthew Paul Olmos (Repertorio Español). Estefanía has developed new work off-Broadway and regionally at The Playwrights’ Realm, The Drama League, Artists Repertory Theatre, Milagro, New Dramatists, LPAC, and Hi-Arts, among others, and has directed at training programs including Juilliard, NYU, and SUNY Purchase. She is an alumna of the National Directors Fellowship at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center/NNPN, the Drama League Directors Project, the Foeller Fellowship at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Civilians’ R&D Group, and the Van Lier Fellowship at Repertorio Español. She is a member of the New Georges Jam, the Latinx Theatre Commons steering committee, the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and SDC. B.A. Vassar College. www.estefaniafadul.com
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Plays: All’s Well That Ends Well; Antony and Cleopatra; As You Like It; The Comedy of Errors; Coriolanus; Cymbeline; Edward III; Hamlet; Henry IV, Parts One and Two; Henry V; Henry VI, Parts One, Two and Three; Henry VIII; Julius Caesar; King John; King Lear; Love’s Labor’s Lost; Macbeth; Measure for Measure; The Merchant of Venice; The Merry Wives of Windsor; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Much Ado about Nothing; Othello; Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Richard II; Richard III; Romeo and Juliet; The Taming of the Shrew; The Tempest; Timon of Athens; Titus Andronicus; Troilus and Cressida; Twelfth Night; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; The Two Noble Kinsmen; The Winter’s Tale.

Poems: “Venus and Adonis,” “The Rape of Lucrece,” “The Phoenix and the Turtle,” Sonnets (154).

NYC Theater: City of No Illusions: The Talking Band; Triggered: The Amoralists; Cute Activist: New Saloon; The Rafa Play: Pool Plays; To The Bone: Cherry Lane Theatre; Pinkolandia; Lucy Loves Me: INTAR, La Ruta: Working Theater; The Play About my Dad: Collaboration Town; Enfrascada: Clubbed Thumb; Frank Dwyer, Sadly Missed: Ensemble Studio Theatre
Regional: Ritu Comes Home; InterAct Theatre; Pinkolandia Two River Theater; Enfrascada: Renaissance Theaterworks; Taking Flight; The Cook: Stages Repertory Theatre.
Film/TV: Friendly Neighborhood Coven, Longmire, Red Oaks, High Maintenance, That’s What She Said; East Willy B; White; Entre Nos
Member: AEA; SAG-Aftra; The Actors Center www.AnnieHenk.com
Pronouns: She/her/hers

Benjamin Bonenfant is based in New York City and most recently appeared as Octavius in Julius Caesar at Theatre For A New Audience. New York credits also include Robin in The Heart of Robin Hood and Aumerle in Richard II at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. In two seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Great Expectations, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and Mary Zimmerman’s The Odyssey. Regional: Denver Center (Hamlet, Benediction, A Christmas Carol, When We Are Married); Colorado Shakespeare Festival, 5 seasons (Henry V, Wittenberg, Henry IV parts 1 & 2, Merry Wives of Windsor, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, The Inspector General, Comedy of Errors, Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing); Arvada Center (The Lion In Winter); Boulder Ensemble (Ambition Facing West, And The Sun Stood Still); Curious Theatre (Red, Colorado Theatre Guild “Henry Award,” Best Supporting Actor); Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (4000 Miles); and TheatreWorks (Love’s Labour’s Lost, Salome, The Seagull, The Bacchae, Our Town, As You Like It. TV: “Bull.” He has a BA from University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Represented by KMR Talent.

Channie Waites is a performing artist, voice-over artist, director, facilitator, educator and program consultant. She has worked and collaborated with youth, senior citizens and social justice leadership programs in the United States, Rwanda and South Africa. She has toured and performed professionally within the United States and abroad. She is the actor for Literature to Life’s one-person adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk. Channie recently inhabited the role of Prospero in The Tempest with Connecticut Free Shakespeare and Dandelion Productions. She also co-created and facilitated workshops related to the themes in the production of The Tempest. Channie has received several honors and acknowledgements for her audiobook narrations including most recently, A Poem For Peter Andrea Davis Pinkney, nominated for a 2018 Audie.

Channie has been co-program director for The International Theater Project (ITP) –Rwanda for the last five years where she has co-directed five original plays devised by youth and led professional developments at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village and the Rwinkwavu Community Learning Center and Library in Rwanda. Channie has a M.A. in Applied Theatre from the School of Professional Studies-CUNY and has a B.A. in Theatre from Penn State University.

Diane Healy: Some NY credits: Pygmalion, Peter Pan, Cry Havoc!, Twelfth Night/What You Will, Sense & Sensibility (BEDLAM); The Father, A Doll’s House (Theatre for A New Audience). Also in NY with: Mabou Mines; Primary Stages; Playwrights Realm; Barrow Street Theatre; Soho Playhouse; Atlantic Theatre Co., LCT3, LaMama, Keen Company, The Civilians, EST. Regionally: Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Bucks County Playhouse, 4 seasons with Folger Theatre, 10 seasons with Shakespeare & Company, 14 seasons with Oldcastle Theatre Company. Dance & Theatre at Princeton University, Bard College, Green Mountain College, East Tennessee State University.

Martha Gehman- Gehman has worked as both an actress and a director at The Public, Circle Rep, Manhattan Theater Club, The Second Stage, Stark Raving Theater, Portland, The Magic, San Francisco, and The Odyssey and The MET both in Los Angeles. She has written and performed her own material in two one person shows: Mercy, and Percy, at Fringe Festivals in NYC and Seattle. She was featured in a number of movies including The Flamingo Kid, The Legend of Billie Jean, F/X, The Father of the Bride, Practical Magic and numerous independents.She sang in a rock band, The Mod Squad, and danced with NYC Ballet.Inspiration: Aretha, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Beckett, Wordsworth, Longfellow, Pierre Bonnard, Matisse to name a few. www.marthagehman.com

Michael has appeared in plays at regional theaters across the country including the Guthrie, Folger, Woolly Mammoth, Cincinnati Playhouse, Actors Theater of Louisville, Yale Rep and St. Louis Rep. He has performed extensively in New York with the Irondale Ensemble Project, 59E59 Theaters, Pecadillo Theater, Pearl Theater Company and more. He was a member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for five seasons and has made appearances on a few television shows and low budget films. He has written several plays, most notably “Dear Father”, a play about Franz Kafka, which was a semifinalist at the O’Neil Festival. He also wrote and produced for “Left Jab”, a weekly talk show that aired on Sirius XM Radio for nine years, and was a producer for “The Majority Report” on Air America Radio. MFA, Yale School of Drama. www.michaelgabrielgoodfriend.com
Pronouns: he/him/his

Nat Cassidy is an actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and musician. Acting credits include “Blue Bloods” (CBS), “Bull” (CBS), “Quantico” (ABC), “The Good Fight” (CBS All Access), “The Following” (Fox), “The Affair” (Showtime), “Red Oaks” (Amazon) “High Maintenance” (original webseries), “Law & Order: SVU” (NBC), “Instinct” (CBS), theatrical productions both Off- and Off-Off-Broadway, and Lloyd in Gideon Media’s hit audiodrama “Steal the Stars.” Nat is the author of numerous award-winning horror plays which have been produced and developed across the country. His plays have been nominated for a combined total of 17 New York Innovative Theatre Awards, including 3 times for Outstanding Full-Length Script (which he won in 2009 for his play about Christopher Marlowe and Caligula, and in 2011 for Outstanding Solo Performance for his one man show about HP Lovecraft) and he was commissioned by The Kennedy Center to write the libretto for a world-premiere opera. Nat also wrote the novelization of the “Steal the Stars” podcast, which was published by Tor Books and named one of the best books of 2017 by both the Chicago Review of Books and NPR. Pancakes to K. www.natcassidy.com
Pronouns: He/him

Reza Salazar NY Public Theatre: The Tempest (Mobile Unit), Oedipus El Rey. BROADWAY: Sweat by Lynn Nottage. OFF BROADWAY: My Mañana Comes (Lortel Award Nomination). REGIONAL THEATRE: Floyd by Lynn Nottage (Guthrie Theatre – Summer 2019 – World Premiere); Sweat (Arena Stage); OTHER THEATRE: The Petrol Station; In the Cypher; Mariela en el Desierto. TV: “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “Daredevil,” “The Blacklist,” “Louie”, “Believe,” “The Knick,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: CI,” FILM: The Imperialists Are Still Alive, See Girl Run, The Inquisition of Camilo Sanz. Credits as a playwright include Incognito, which debuted at the Thespis Theater Festival.

Originally from Caimito Alto, Puerto Rico, Sol is a New York based actress and writer. Notable theater credits include: Azul (Southern Rep Theatre); John Leguizamo’s Kiss My Aztec! (The Public, NY); Water by the Spoonful (PittStages); Brewed (No Name Players). Film/TV: New Amsterdam (NBC); Tell Me A Story (CBS); Sea Oak (Amazon); Stage 5 (Dir. Phoebe Pearl); Unsane (Dir. Steven Soderbergh), Old Maid (Tutsitala Prods). Awards include: The Eben Demarest Trust by The Pittsburgh Foundation (2016); Person of the Year – NYTheatre.com (2012); Ford Foundation Fellowship for Career Advancement (2007) and the HOLA Award for Outstanding Performance of a Featured Actress (2005). www.solmarina.com

Teresa Avia Lim: Last seen on Broadway as Judy Chen in Ayad Akhtar’s JUNK at Lincoln Center. Other works: Shakespeare in the Park’s all female production of Taming of the Shrew, NAATCO’S Awake and Sing and Macbeth with the Mobile Shakespeare Unit at the Public Theatre and originated her roles in Water by the Spoonful, Peerless, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them and Concerning Strange Devices From the Distant West. TV/Film Ray Donovan, The Schopenhauer Cure, Blue Bloods, Limitless, Unforgettable, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Dispatched, Take Me With You and Monster. Teresa is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and an inaugural Recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Scholarship.

Terri Weagant is Brooklyn-based actor, solo performer and writer. She has performed in many parts of the US, Canada, Australia and the Czech Republic. Regional theatre credits include Roe (Asolo Repertory Theatre; Handy Award), Bo-Nita (Urbanite Theatre), Every Brilliant Thing (Denizen Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, Henry V (Seattle Shakespeare Company), These Streets (ACT Theatre), The Cider House Rules (Book It Repertory Theatre), Antony and Cleopatra (Consolidated Works), Archangels Don’t Play Pinball (CHAC), Karaoke Suicide is Painless (Radial Theatre Project). Film and television credits include Mozart in the Jungle (Amazon), The Jazzman’s Jazzman (CroMagnon Films), Big Boy (Pinprick Films). Terri is producer of the documentary film Above the Bamboo Room, which will premiere in Haines, Alaska in 2019. She currently teaches at The Playwrights Horizons Theatre School at NYU.

Tramell Tillman is a DC/MD native. Some of his theatre credits include: Carmen Jones (CSC), Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Red Bull), Sweat (Oregon Shakes and Arena), All the Roads Home (Cincinnati Playhouse), Hamlet, The Wiz, (OSF), A Raisin in the Sun, The Tempest (Chautauqua), The Whipping Man (Clarence Brown). He can also be found on television: Dietland (AMC), Godfather of Harlem (EPIX), The Hunt (Amazon), Elementary (CBS), and Difficult People (Hulu). He is a proud graduate of the University of Tennessee MFA program and a former member of the Chautauqua conservatory program. Watch his journey on Facebook, IG: Tramellington, or Twitter: @TramellTillman

Violeta Picayo  Off-Broadway: Sense and Sensibility, Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet, Peter Pan, New York Animals (Bedlam). New York: Twelfth Night and What You Will, The Seagull (Bedlam), Julius Caesar (Pocket Universe), RadioBABEL (SITI Lab), This Is How…to Dance (SITI Company), Taming of the Shrew (Tale Told), soft (NYSAF). Regional: Bedlam’s Sense and Sensibility (American Repertory Theater, Portland Center Stage), The Connector (NYSAF), Young Playwrights Festival (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center). International: We Must Live (Cellar Theatre, UK), American Blues, The Importance of Being Earnest (Edinburgh Fringe), Thyestes (OYL, Greece). Violeta is a company member at Bedlam and a proud graduate of the SITI Conservatory, NTI, and Vassar College.
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Ada Karamanyan is a casting director based out of New York, NY. She currently serves as the casting associate for the off-broadway theater organization The Playwrights Realm, and as a producing artistic leader for the year-round fellowship program Trans Lab, co-created and produced by MJ Kaufman and Kit Yan. Recent affiliations include casting for Baltimore Center Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Arizona Theatre Co., New York Musical Festival, and ACT – A Contemporary Theatre. In addition, she served as the casting fellow at New York Theater Workshop during their inaugural 2050 administrative fellowship program.
Pronouns: she/her or they/them

During her 25 years at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Douthit oversaw a full service literary department as Director of Literary Development and Dramaturgy. Play on! began in 2012 as a pilot program under her supervision. She was the Production Dramaturg for more than 50 productions, including 15 world premieres including: Hannah and the Dread Gazebo; Head Over Heels; Family Album; The Unfortunates; Throne of Blood;  and Equivocation.. She has also worked on over two dozen Shakespeare productions. She is the co-adapter of a six-actor Macbeth and seven-actor Measure for Measure, which were both produced at OSF and elsewhere. She was the co-producer of the Black Swan Lab in 2009, going on to produce the lab from 2010 to 2016. Douthit is the recipient of the 1999 Literary Manager & Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) Prize in Dramaturgy: The Elliott Hayes Award. She received a PhD at the University of Washington, an MFA from Trinity University, and an MA from University of Arizona.

Taylor Bailey spent four years in Chicago where he worked on twelve productions with The Neo-Futurists. He served as Operations Manager and Education Coordinator for The Neo-Futurists, as well as the program developer and coordinator for Neo-Access, a multi-winged strategy for diversity and inclusion as well as accessibility for the differently abled. As a freelance director, performer, storyteller, dramaturg and producer worked with: First Floor Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, American Theatre Company, The Agency Collective, Timeline Theatre, About Face Productions, Collaboration Theatre Company and others. In Dallas, worked with WaterTower Theatre and served as the Associate Artistic Director of Sideman Productions for two years. Additional experience as a teaching artist, IT coordinator and project manager.

Publications: Contributor, New York Times Bestseller It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming
Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living with Dan Savage and Terry Miller.

Summer Martin has spent over a decade in domestic and international grant management for non-profits focused on the arts and education. Summer’s commitment to community empowerment informs her dedication to the mission of Play On Shakespeare.

Education: BA, Mount Holyoke College; MSc, Maryland University of Integrative Health

Sally Cade Holmes (Line Producer) is a Tony-nominated producer committed to making challenging and innovative entertainment with broad appeal. On Broadway, she has co-produced Hadestown, Anastasia and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Off-Broadway, she is a producer on the his play Puffs. She has produced projects in Ars Nova’s AntFest, New York Musical Theatre Festival, Hot! Festival and The Public’s Under The Radar Festival. She collaborated with Les Freres Corbusier to produce Here’s Hoover! directed by Alex Timbers. Additionally, she is the Associate Producer at Tom Kirdahy Productions (The Inheritance, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, The Visit, It’s Only A Play). She served as the Producing Associate at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Other companies that she’s collaborated with include: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Theatre @ Boston Court, Keen Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Sans A Productions, and TheatreWorks USA. Sally Cade is a Master of Arts Administration candidate at Boston University and received her BS in Theatre Studies with a minor in Religious Studies from the University of Evansville. She is an associate member of the Broadway League and a member of the 2016-2018 WP Lab.

Hannah Lang is a producer and theatre-maker living in Brooklyn. She is currently working as the Programming Associate at NYMF and as an Artistic Associate at Hypokrit Theatre Company, in addition to being the proud founder of Three of Cups Theatre Collective. She is a recent graduate of St. John’s University, where she earned her M.A. in History. She is most passionate about producing work that uplifts voices of marginalized communities. She recently assistant directed Molly Houlahan on Hypokrit’s R+J, and is a former intern of The New Victory Theater, New York Musical Festival, and Honest Accomplice Theatre. Thank you to the entire Play On Shakespeare team!

Matt is the Assistant Festival Producer for the Play On Festival. He’s spent the past five years in events and festivals; including work for the Austin Film Festival, Dallas International Film Festival, and the New Harmony Project. BS in Theatre & History from the University of Evansville.
Pronouns: he/him

In the fall of 2015 Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced a new commissioning program called Play on! 36 playwrights translate Shakespeare. The project was simple yet enthusiastically ambitious in its original conception: to commission 36 playwrights (with one lucky playwright taking on all three Henry VI’s) to “translate” 39 plays attributed to Shakespeare (including Two Noble Kinsman and Edward III) over the course of three years (last drafts were submitted December 31, 2018) and with a commitment that the commissioned group comprised at least 51% women and writers of color. In it’s three year tenure at OSF, Play on! worked with nearly 1000 actors, directors, stage managers, and producers on nearly 80 readings, workshops, productions and demonstrations in 19 different cities, collaborating with 24 different theatres and academic institutions around the world.

At the end of Play on!’s three-year tenure at OSF, energized by its overwhelming scope and success, the project’s producing team secured funding to form their own, new not-for-profit company. On January 1, 2019, once again with the critical support of the Hitz Foundation, they established Play On Shakespeare, whose mission is to enhance the understanding of Shakespeare’s plays in performance for theatre professionals, students, and audiences by engaging with contemporary translations and adaptations. The Play On Festival is the first of many undertakings planned by the company.

Classic Stage Company (CSC) is committed to reimagining classic stories for contemporary audiences. It is a home for New York’s finest established and emerging artists to grapple with great works of the world’s repertory that speak directly to the issues of today.

In 1967, director Christopher Martin founded CSC Repertory in a 100-seat theater at Rutgers Presbyterian Church on West 73rd Street. Following short stints in small spaces, CSC grew to the point where it needed a permanent home. In 1973, the theater moved to its present premises on 13th Street, an intimate space that was formerly an East Village carriage house.

In the 50 years since, CSC has become a leading Off-Broadway theater that is a home for new and established artists, as well audiences seeking epic stories intimately told. Productions have been cited by all major Off-Broadway theater awards including the Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.