GENTRIFUSION: an installation of new work

Red Fern Theatre tackles the divisive subject of gentrification in New York City's neighborhoods. 6 award-winning playwrights, 3 stellar directors, and 19 actors from every background use their experience as artists living in the city to push beyond the bounds of political correctness and speak to the heart of what really goes on in our changing neighborhoods, for better or for worse.  From Crown Heights to Washington Heights, long time residents and the new crop of "gentrifiers" are given voice in these commissioned new short plays.  Join the conversation, and hear what your neighbors are saying. 

Playwrights include: Carla Ching, Joshua Conkel, Michael John Garcés, Jon Kern, Janine Nabers and Crystal Skillman

Directors include: John Giampietro, Colette Robert, and Moritz von Stuelpnagel

Artistic Producers: Andrea Day and Kel Haney

Executive Artistic Director: Melanie Moyer Williams

Full Cast List in Alphabetical Order:
Sheldon Best *, Rajesh Bose *, Tim Cain *, Molly Carden, Wayne T. Carr *, Salvadore Chevez, Gilbert Cruz *, Andrea Day, Nathan Hinton *, Devin Norik *, Eugene Oh, Gio Perez*, Casey Robinson, Michael Schantz, André St. Clair Thompson, Federico Trigo *, Megan Tusing, Tai Verley, and Tiffany Villarin

GENTRIFUSION was performed January 27-February 13 at The LABA Theatre at the 14th Street Y located at 344 East 14th Street between First and Second Avenues. 

Following the performance on Thursday, February 10, we held a talkback with GOLES - Good Old Lower East Side. GOLES’ name reflects its hope, stretching beyond the struggle for legal rights and personal security to a struggle for collective security, for the gamut of people and cultures, spaces and institutions that historically made the Lower East Side one of the most unique, politically energetic neighborhoods in the world. For more information visit http://www.goles.org.

Press Representation by Katie Rosin / Kampfire PR.
For press inquiries, please email katie@kampfirefilmspr.com or call 917-438-9223. www.kampfirefilmspr.com

Philanthropic Partner:

In honor of our 5th Anniversary Season and in the spirit of supporting as many changing New York communities as possible, Red Fern Theatre Company included all of our past philanthropies as partners for GENTRIFUSION. These 13 philanthropies are located throughout Manhattan and the boroughs, and the reach of their individual missions is even broader. As we delve into the cycles of change and their effect on different New York neighborhoods, we support those organizations that serve these communities.

Look at what people had to say about Gentrifusion :

"Gentrifusion is a proper reminder to be mindful of those who have come before, those who have sacrificed everything to stay here, and those who are as painfully passionate about the neighborhood and city (and that special bodega) as you are." 
~Rachel Merrill Moss, nytheatre.com

"Gentrifusion not only provides a wonderfully multi-racial and talented cast, and a great evening of theatre, but each of the plays is paired with a philanthropy (all of which Red Fern has worked with before on previous projects). If you like provocative new urban theatre, this is not to be missed." 
~Duncan Pflaster, Broadwayworld.com

“At these intersections of interaction are the difficult places we have the opportunity to listen - even change. This is what theatre, unlike life can do for us, allow us a context in which to observe as we explore deeply personal issues. Gentrifusion is such a experience.”
~Jody Christopherson, blog critic

For an interview with playwright Crystal Skillman and producer/actor Andrea Day, click here.

GENTRIFUSION is registered with the New York Innovative Theatre Awards, new awards specifically for Off-Off-Broadway theatre, and your vote will make a difference.  Vote for us at www.nyitawards.org!

We participate in the TDF voucher program.

This program was supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

This program was also made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency.

GENTRIFUSION was made possible by generous grants from the following foundations:

The Dramatists Guild Fund

The Puffin Foundation

The Josephine Foundation

Bios:

Playwrights

Carla Ching, Playwright - First of the Month

Originally from LA, Carla Ching started out writing and performing with pan-Asian performance collective Peeling.  Workshops and productions: The Women’s Project, Ma-Yi Theater Company, 2g, Vampire Cowboys, Desipina & Company, and others. Alumna of The Women’s Project Lab 2008-2010, current member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab.  2008 Urban Artists Initiative fellow, 2009-2010 Teachers & Writers Collaborative Fellow,  2010-11 Lark Playwrights Workshop Fellow.  2010 Sloan Commission from EST.  BA, Vassar College.  MFA, New School for Drama.  Artistic director of 2g.  www.carlaching.com

Joshua Conkel, Playwright - Robert Mapplethorpe Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Joshua Conkel is a playwright and occasional actor. He is the author of MilkMilkLemonade (Best Off Off Broadway Show of 2009-NY Press, published by Playscripts), The Chalk Boy (Published by Original Works Publishing), Lonesome Winter, The Sluts of Sutton Drive, and I Wanna Destroy You. He is Co Artistic Director of The Management and a member of EST's Youngblood, The Dramatists Guild, and TOSOS, New York's oldest LGBT theater company.

Michael John Garcés, Playwright - inhabited

For Cornerstone, Michael has directed Making Paradise by Tom Jacobson, Shishir Kurup and Deborah Wicks La Puma, 3 Truths by Naomi Iizuka, Someday by Julie Marie Myatt, attraction by Page Leong, and The Falls by Jeffrey Hatcher (at the Guthrie Theater).  He also wrote Los Illegals, the first play of the Justice Cycle, created in collaboration with communities of day laborers and domestic workers and which was subsequently produced by Teatro Bravo in Phoenix, Arizona.  Other directing credits include, most recently, Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy at CalArts and the break/s by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, which co-premiered at the Humana Festival (Actors Theatre of Louisville) and the Walker Art Center, and which toured the U.S. to venues such as REDCAT, Under the Radar and The August Wilson Center for African American Culture.  Other theatres at which he has directed include A Contemporary Theater, Hartford Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New York Theatre Workshop, The Children's Theatre Company, Second Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Cherry Lane, The Atlantic Theater Company and Repertorio Español.   He has twice been in residence with a consensus-run collective, Sna Jtz'ibajom, in Chiapas, Mexico, collaborating in the creation of community-engaged work with members of the Mayan community.  Michael is on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and serves on the Ovation review Committee for the Los Angeles Stage Alliance. His full-length plays include THE WEB (needtheatre), points of departure (INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center) and Acts of Mercy (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); short plays includehymn in three parts (Chalk Rep), in the Zone (Red Fern Theatre Co.), tostitos (Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays) on edge and the ride (Humana Festival, "The Open Road Anthology"), audiovideo (The Directors Project) and sandlot ball (Mile Square). His solo performance piece, agua ardiente, ran Off-Broadway at The American Place Theatre, and he performed in and wrote for "The Borges Project", which was presented at the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the 31st World Congress of the International Theatre Institute (UNESCO).  He collaborated with composer Alexandra Vrebalov on the oratorio Stations, which received its premiere at the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra and was also performed at the NOMUS Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia.  Michael is a recipient of the Princess Grace Statue, the Alan Schneider Director Award, and a TCG/New Generations Grant. He is a proud alumnus of New Dramatists.  In February he will be directing Oedipus El Rey by Luis Alfaro at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

Jon Kern, Playwright - Ours is the Future. Ours is the Past.

Jon’s full-length work includes Telefonesis: The Art of Mental Murder, Do Clones Dream of Identical Sheep?, and Modern Terrorism, or They Who Want to Kill Us and How We Learn to Love Them.  His short plays have been performed at Ensemble Studio Theater, The Brick, The Flea, and in the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. Graduate: University of Chicago (BA), Columbia University (MFA). Member: the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, The Old Vic New Voices Network, and (now) Ars Nova Play Group. Alumnus: EST/Youngblood. Awards: 2010-2011 Van Lier Fellowship in Playwriting from New Dramatists, 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Commission. In early February, Red Fern will workshop his play We in Silence Hear a Whisper once again. Right after that, he will fly to Amsterdam for an extensive workshop of Do Not Disturb, an experimental triptych directed by Marike Splint.

Janine Nabers, Playwright - (2) 11

Janine is the current 2011 P73 playwriting Fellow and is a member of The MCC Playwrights Coalition, Ars Nova Play Group and the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer's Group. She is an alumna of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and the Dramatist Guild Playwriting Fellowship program.  In 2010 she was awarded residencies at The MacDowell Colony and Sundance @ UCross. Her plays include: ANNIE BOSH IS MISSING (Developed with Playwrights Horizons and Clubbed Thumb at SuperLab), WELCOME TO JESUS (Soho Rep), WHEN THE LEVEE BROKE (Workshop Theater Company), JUNIPER; JUBILEE (Samuel French Festival Winner 08), WEST OF THE WILLOW TREE (Winner of the 2009 New Professional Theater Award and 2008 Princess Grace Finalist) and GENERATION GRAFFITI (Samuel French Festival finalist 09).  She received her MFA in playwriting from The New School for Drama where she was recently awarded the 2010 New School for Drama/Samuel French Emerging Writer Award. 

Crystal Skillman, Playwright - Crawl

Crystal is a Brooklyn based playwright. Her work includes The Vigil or the Guided Cradle, directed by John Hurley for Impetuous Theater Group at the Brick Theater, which won the 2010 NY Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Full Length Script. She is also the author of Birthday, directed by Daniel Talbott at Rising Phoenix Rep and Sharon Willems in London this summer at the Waterloo East Theatre, as well as the comedy Hack! an I.T. Spaghetti Western, also directed by John Hurley for Impetuous Theater Group at The Brick Theater with producer Amanda Feldman. Other plays include: Killer High (Piper McKenzie/Vampire Cowboys), Nobody, The Telling Trilogy (Rising Phoenix Rep); Kiss (Side Project, Chicago) Flow (EST/Sloan) and The Ballad of Phineas P. Gage (Drama of Works/HERE). She is currently writing her new full length Geek, a new play commission for the Obie-Award winning Vampire Cowboys; she is also working on her play The Sleeping World with director Daniel Talbott which will be workshopped at Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) this spring/summer. Crystal has been honored to be dubbed an “indie trailblazer” this year by Broadway World and to develop her plays with theatres such as Lincoln Center, New Georges, Rattlestick, the Working Theater, York Theater, the E.S.T/Sloan Project. She is published by Plays & Playwrights, Smith & Kraus, Out of Time and Place (a new anthology featuring alumni writers from The Women’s Project Lab) and is happy to announce that Samuel French will be publishing her plays Birthday and Nobody. Crystal is a member of the MCC Theater Playwrights’ Coalition, E.S.T, Rising Phoenix Rep, The Pack, Women’s Project, New Georges and Dramatists Guild.

Production

Laura Anderson, Production Manager

Laura Anderson has worked on various television shows as a production manager and coordinator.  Past jobs include: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Kennedy Center Honors, The Mark Twain Prize, Paul McCartney at the White House, The Gershwin Prize for Popular Song honoring Paul Simon, The Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and various commercials and EPKs.  She would like to thank Jon Hodes for his support and help and Kenneth Fries for his tremendous support and love.  Without Jon and Kenneth, "Gentrifusion" would not be what it is. 

Katherine Akiko Day, Scenic and Costume Design

Katherine Akiko Day has a B.A. in Art History and Film Studies from Dartmouth College and an M.F.A. in Stage Design from the Yale School of Drama where she was the recipient of the Donald and Zorca Oenslager Fellowship in Design.  Her mother being a painter, she has been a lifelong student of Studio Art and Art history.  She had a musical career with the violin, viola, and piano for seventeen years before changing direction in college.  Katherine studied foreign languages abroad in Spain and Italy and taught language and dance at Dartmouth.  There she assisted scenic designers Gerogi Alexi and Pavel Dobrusky.  At Dartmouth She received the George Schoenhut Service Award for excellence in theater and the Adelbert Ames Fine Arts Award for excellence in the study of Art History. She has designed costumes for The Master Builder and the set for The Servant of Two Masters at The Yale Repertory Theater.  Her most recent NYC credits include costumes for the Redfern Theater's The Good Egg, props design for Playwright's Horizon's Dramatis Personae, and costumes for The Odyssey at the Wing's Theater. 

Michelle Foster, Rehearsal Stage Manager/Assistant Director

Recent credits include: Rosmersholm (Pearl Theatre Co.), Endless Summer Nights (Boomerang Theatre Co., PSM), FringeNYC (Venue Director), The Tempest (Boomerang, ASM), As You Like It (Marymount Manhattan College, PSM), Seagulls (Wingspan Theatre Co, Dallas, PSM), Fifteen Minute Play Festival (American Globe Theatre, Co-Producer), She Stoops to Conquer (Marymount Manhattan College, ASM)

John Giampietro, Director - inhabited and Ours is the Future. Ours is the Past.

John Giampietro was born in Philadelphia, PA and studied Acting and Directing at Hofstra University. He is the former Artistic Director of The Accidental Theatre Company in NYC where he directed Love’s Labors Lost, Miss Julie, Joan of Lorraine, Feeding the Dead, and Wagner’s in the Tub. He directed the National Tour and New York run of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the National Shakespeare Company. Other productions include Vermont Shakespeare Company, Phoenix Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Manhattan School of Music, Manhattan Opera, and Trill Vocal Projects.

John has served assistantships alongside such Directors as Lee Blessing, Marion McClinton, Doug Hughes, Garland Wright and Franco Zeffirelli. As a champion of new work for the stage, John is a frequent director with Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood, a program for emerging playwrights under 30.  John's roles as an actor include Hamlet in Hamlet, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Jason in Medea Unharnassed, the Duke in Measure for Measure, and Odysseus in Hekabe, among others.

He is the author of three plays, Strength of God and other grotesques, which had its premier at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, Wagner’s in the Tub and The M. of Versailles.  He is Adjunct Associate Professor at Hofstra University, and faculty member of The Chautauqua Institution School of Music and The Juilliard School.

Kel Haney, Artistic Producer

Kel has developed new work with such theatres as Ensemble Studio Theatre, Youngblood, New Dramatists, Ars Nova, The Directors Company, 52nd Street Project, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Vampire Cowboys, Desipina & Company, NY Fringe Festival & Westport Country Playhouse. She has collaborated with such playwrights as Robert Askins, Laura Maria Censabella, Carla Ching, Emily Conbere, Dorothy Fortenberry, Jon Kern, Matt Schatz and composer Michael Kooman. www.kelhaney.com

Dennis W. Ho, Photojournalist

Dennis W. Ho is a filmmaker, photojournalist, musican, and artist.  He directed, shot, edited, and scored the feature documentary film Subway Preacher, now available for viewing on Youtube (search "Subway Preacher").  Please visit his website at dwho.com.

Megan Eileen Kosmoski, Properties and RFTC Social Media PR

Megan received her BA in Drama from the Catholic University in Washington DC with her thesis in directing. She has also studied at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon with an emphasis in Shakespeare in Performance. Her most recent credits include: Good Egg, Asst. directing/Props (Red Fern);  Photograph 51, costume design (Active Cultures); and Fallen Angles, directing (TheatreVision). Visit her at http://megankosmo.webs.com.

Laura Luciano, Rehearsal Stage Manager/Assistant Director

Laura is thrilled to be part of another Red Fern Theatre production!  Recent stage management credits include +30NYC (Red Fern Theatre Company), All Through The Night (Red Fern Theatre Company), Love and Sex (Turtle Shell Productions) and Miss Evers' Boys (Red Fern Theatre Company).  Other directing credits include Anton In Show Business (AD/SUNY New Paltz) and Polaroid Stories (SUNY New Paltz).

Michal V. Mendelson*, Production Stage Manager

The Misanthrope (Pearl Theatre); Good Egg (Red Fern); Spacebar (Studio 42); Lenin’s Embalmers, Princes of Waco, Heaven Knows, End Days, Stockton, Thicker Than Water, Lucy, (all Ensemble Studio Theatre); Antigone (Phoenix Theatre Ensemble); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, American Girls, Twelfth Night, Men of Clay (Dog-Run Repertory); Happy Days, The Moonlight Room, The Mystery of Attraction, As You Like It, Four, Isn’t It Romantic, Small Craft Warnings (all Worth Street Theatre); Our Place in Time (Women’s Project); Sophie, Totie, and Belle (Theater 4); Henry V (La Mama, Etc).  Regional: Move It and It’s Yours (Passage Theatre Co, Trenton, NJ) The Internationalist, The Moonlight Room (both Fairfield Theatre Co.), Off the Hook (Oldcastle Theatre, VT).  

Kate Pressman, Rehearsal Stage Manager/Assistant Director

Kate is a playwright and stage manager who received her BFA in Dramatic Writing from SUNY Purchase in 2009.  She's stage managed full lengths plays, short plays, showcases and readings at Purchase, HB Playwright's Foundation, At Hand Theater Company, Strain Theatre Company, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre (including the Marathon and Octoberfest). She also served as rehearsal stage manger for Red Fern’s production of Good Egg by Dorothy Fortenberry earlier this season.

Colette Robert, Director – (2) 11 and Crawl

Colette has developed and directed new work at The Old Vic, EST, FringeNYC, Ars Nova, Ma-Yi, Second Generation, New Georges, and the Sundance Theatre Lab.  She is a member of At Play, the Old Vic/New Voices Network, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, and was the Public Theater’s 2009 Van Lier Directing Fellow. M.A., RADA and King’s College, London. B.A., Yale University.  www.coletterobert.com

Katie Rosin / Kampfire PR, Press Representation

Katie Rosin/Kampfire PR was instrumental in the launch of the Broadway musical Brooklyn and the National Tour of Mother Load. She worked on the publicity team for the comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, and his movie Comedian. Off-Broadway highlights include: Modotti, Acorn Theater; GLAAD Award Winner, She Like Girls, Ohio Theater; …Another Man’s Poison, Jay Sharp Theater; Swimming With The Polar Bears, 45 Bleecker Street; Glimpses of the Moon, Algonquin Hotel; NY IT Awards recipient Elizabeth Rex, Center Stage; Mother Load, Sage Theater; Wasps in Bed, Beckett Theater; Anaïs Nin: One Of Her Lives, Beckett Theater; Triple Threat: 2007 Drama Desk Nominee (mis)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY: The Hattie McDaniel Story, Theatre 5.  Kampfire clients include: 3Graces Theatre Co., Astoria Performing Arts Center, Maieutic Theatre Awards, New York Innovative Theatre Awards, Nicu's Spoon, and Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. www.kampfirefilmspr.com   For information, discounts and more text KAMPFIRE to 99222.

Moritz von Stuelpnagel, Director - First of the Month and Robert Mapplethorpe Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Moritz is the Artistic Director of Studio 42, which is devoted to producing “unproducible” plays. In New York, he has directed new plays, musicals or classics for Ensemble Studio Theatre, Studio 42, Ars Nova, Rising Phoenix Rep, poortom, FringeNYC, Vital, Drama League, Culture Project, Chashama, HERE, and others. Regionally, he’s directed for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Kennedy Center, American Stage Festival, Red Barn, Allentown Shakespeare in the Park, and Boston Playwrights Theatre. Moritz has also helped develop new plays at the Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, the Dramatists Guild, Ma-Yi, New River Dramatists, Partial Comfort, 2G, TBTB, Williamstown, Astoria Performing Arts Center and Young Playwrights. A member of EST, he is a frequent collaborator with Youngblood, EST’s collective of playwrights under 30. He was the associate director for Broadway’s Tony-nominated Cry-Baby, and has served as assistant director to Mark Brokaw, Nicholas Martin, Anna D. Shapiro, Dominic Cooke, Marion McClinton, Kate Whoriskey, David Petrarca, Darko Tresnjak, Michael John Garcés, Chris Shinn, and others. He has been a Resident Director at Playwrights Horizons, The Acting Company, and the Huntington Theatre Company. In 2005, he received the Drama League’s Fall Directing Fellowship, and in 2007, the Boris Sagal Fellowship at Williamstown. Moritz is an adjunct professor at Fordham University, teaches Acting Shakespeare at One on One Productions, and has been a guest director at close to a dozen universities, including Juilliard, NYU, Boston University, Fordham, University of Rochester, and Connecticut College. www.moritzvs.com

Colin J. Whitely, Sound Design

Colin’s credits include Beirut by Alan Browne (Athena Theater Company), Hate Mail w/ John Slattery and Cynthia Nixon (Opening Act) Factory Girls by Frank McGuinness (Atlantic Theater Company), Breakfast with Mugabe by Fraser Grace (Centenary Stage Company), Mrs. Mannerly by Jeffrey Hatcher (Penguin Rep), Quiet Frenzy by Stacey Robinson, Henry VI: Part III by William Shakespeare (Wide Eyed Productions), Paternity by Winter Miller(Cherry Lane Theater) Letters to the End of the World by Anton Dudley (At Hand Theater Co.) Trying by Erin Browne (Trying Productions) True West by Sam Shepard (The Athena Theater Company) and assisted on shows such as Charles Busch’s The Devine Sister; +30NY (Red Fern Company); The Cocktail Party (TACT) and Enjoy (The Play Company). He studied theater production at the University of Southern Maine. He would like to thank all those who have supported him through the years.

Melanie Moyer Williams, Executive Artistic Director

Melanie, a cum laude graduate of Duke University, is also Founder and Executive Artistic Director of the Red Fern Theatre Company.  Her credits for the company include the New York Premiere of Shirley Lauro’s ALL THROUGH NIGHT, +30NYC, MISS EVERS' BOYS (NYIT and AUDELCO Nominations), AN IDEAL HUSBAND, A PIECE OF MY HEART, WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD?, THE EXONERATED, THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME, FOUND A PEANUT, TWO ROOMS, AND PATIENT A.  Most recently, she directed in the ONE MINUTE PLAY festival at the APAC.  In the last year, Melanie has also directed a staged version of Handel’s MESSIAH for Pocket Opera NY and worked with Shirley Lauro on a reading of her new play, THE RADIANT at the Actors’ Studio and Ensemble Studio Theatre.  Other NY Credits include MEMORIAL DAYS and the World Premiere of HENRY KISSINGER (FringeNYC) by John Attanas; MEDEA excerpts for CYPRECO and the New York Public Library; FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS, WHEN THE WORLD WAS GREEN and ICARUS’S MOTHER.  She directed THAT IS THE QUESTION in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival (named one of the Best in the Festival).  Internationally, she has directed A TRIBUTE TO ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of El Salvador in El Salvador with Wanderlust Theatre Company.  Prior to moving to New York, Melanie was also a founder and Managing Director of the Camden Shakespeare Company in Camden, Maine. 

Marie Yokoyama, Lighting Design

Marie Yokoyama - Lighting design credits include: (M)asking Questions at the California Repertory Theater, King Cat Calico at Son of Semele, Compulsion at Yale Repertory Theatre, Celebration at TheatreHAN, Walkabout Yeolha at Columbia University, and Sparkling Objects at Canal Park Playhouse. Her credits at Yale University include: Ghost Sonata, Man Equals Man, Jelly’s Last Jam, American Catnip, The French Play, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Lobby design credit include: Haunting the Reynosos at Teatro IATI.

Cast

Sheldon Best*, Ty in Crawl

Sheldon Best (Ty) NYC: Freed (59E59 & Penguin Rep), for which he received an Audelco nomination for best lead actor; Paradox of the Urban Cliché (LAByrinth); Alice in Slasherland (Vampire Cowboys); Free Man of Color (Penguin Rep); Soul Samurai  (May-Yi & Vampire Cowoys.  Regional: Harriet Jacobs (Underground Railway & Providence Black Rep); Much Ado About Nothing (Actors' Shakespeare Project); The Oil Thief (Boston Playwrights); The History Boys (SpeakEasy Stage); One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Berkshire Theatre Festival).

Rajesh Bose*, Sam in First of the Month

 New York : NAATCO, Ensemble Studio Theatre, LaMama, MCC Theater, Abingdon Theatre , Lark Theatre, as well as his off-Broadway debut in the six month run of Masked. Regional: Victory Gardens Theatre , Mixed Blood Theatre , Pittsburgh Public Theater , Pittsburgh City Theatre, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre and Quantum Theatre. Film/TV: Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order:CI, The Sopranos, The Good Wife as well as the Academy Award nominated film Frozen River.

Tim Cain*, Mr. Douglas in Ours is the Future. Ours is the Past.

NYC Theater – Linus and Alora (Andhow!@ The Flea), Rebel Voices (Culture Project), Don’t Quit Your Night Job (Don't Quit Prod.),  Godspell (2000 Off-Broadway Cast), several shows as actor/director with The 52nd Street Project.   Regional Theater – Just So, Showboat, Little Shop of Horrors. Live Narration – Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Tour), BebopperElla - Patti Austin (Tour).  Audio Books – The Wave (Walter Mosley), I, Alex Cross (James Patterson), Djibouti (Elmore Leonard).

Molly Carden, blu in inhabited, Student in Ours is the Future. Ours is the Past.

Molly Carden graduated from the University of the North Carolina School of the Arts in June. Favorite roles from UNCSA include Joan in Shaw’s St. Joan and Sarah Nancy in Horton Foote’s Blind Date. Since being back in NY she has worked on Ivanov at Lake Lucille, Happy's Funeral at the Times Square Arts Center and a series of readings and workshop’s at the Penguin Rep., the Lark and EST.

Wayne T. Carr*, Jakob in First of the Month

Waynemaking his debut with Red Fern and just moved to New York this past December.  Most recently seen in:  'Funk it Up About Nothing'(Joe's Pub/The Public Theatre); Hector, in 'Troilus and Cressida', and Adriana, in 'Bombitty of Errors' (Hudson Valley Shakespeare).  He has worked regionally at; Goodman Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre,  Indiana Repertory, American Players Theatre,  Illinois Shakespeare,  Nebraska Shakespeare, and more.  M.F.A. in Acting from Penn State University; Bachelors in Directing from Frostburg State University. 

Salvador Chevez, Rogelio in Ours is the Future. Ours is the Past.

Salvador studied theatre at the University of Houston and cut his teeth in the same city before moving here. He would like to thank the Red Fern Theatre Company for his first NYC stage appearance. Also, he would like to thank all his friends and family for their support with a special thank you to Bernardo Cubria.

Gilbert Cruz,* Jorge in (2) 11

Gilbert is very happy to be working w/Red Fern, over the years he has worked at most of the country's major  regional theaters including McCarter, Seattle rep, Shakespeare theater, Alliance, Old Globe, Merrimack rep.  In NY he has appeared at the Cherry Lane, Intar/Women's proj. Ps122, Ma-Yi .in plays from Nilo Cruz to Moliere to Shakespeare.  Currently he is associated w/Intar, hosting its Mon. night salon for actors, writers..etc.  On film he can be seen in "GWB", Sex and the City, A Guide to Recognizing your Saints.

Andrea Day, Artistic Producer and Sara in (2) 11

New York credits: MIDSUMMER: A Study (new theater house); Good Egg, +30 NYC, The Long Christmas Ride Home (Red Fern Theatre); Live Broadcast (FringeNYC); Macbeth (American Globe Theater); The One Minute Play Festival at HERE Arts and Vampire Cowboy's Saloon Series. Regional Credits: Pennsylvania Centre Stage, California Shakespeare Theater, & Napa Valley Shakespeare Festival.  MFA, Penn State University.  Andrea is a producing member of new theater house (www.newtheaterhouse.org) and TDF's Broadway audiodescriber for the blind.

Nathan Hinton*, Alex in Crawl

Nathan Hinton.  Nathan is happy to take part in this wonderful project.  New York credits include the world premiere of Insurrection: Holding History and The Tempest, both at the Public Theater,  A Fair Country at Lincoln Center Theater and Living in the Wind at the American Place Theater, for which he received an Audelco Award nomination.  Other credits include Misquoted Texts at BE Company, the original production of Stray Cats at Naked Angels and the lead in Classical Theatre of Harlem’s revival of Marat/Sade.  Favorite regional credits include Nomathemba at the Huntington Theatre Company opposite South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Pentecost at Berkeley Rep, and The Piano Lesson at Delaware Theatre Company with Tony Award winner Roger Robinson.  Nathan played Davey Battle in the Philadelphia premiere of Take Me Out at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, which received the Barrymore Award for production of the year in 2005. Television credits include NYPB Blue, One Life to Live, and All My Children.  A Fox Fellow in acting research, Nathan is also an avid gardener.

Devin Norik*, Stephan in Robert Mapplethorpe Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Devin is thrilled to be working with the Red Fern Theater Company.  New York:  The Smoking Gun (Studio Tisch), I Am Frightened of My Body (Ars Nova); Invitation Only, The Second Play Written of My Dead Living Father (At Play).  Regional:  The Lion in Winter (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Two Gentleman of Verona, A Christmas Carol (Geva Theatre).  Film:  The Trouble With Cali (dir. Paul Sorvino) andStars (dir. Molly Cooper).  MFA:  NYU Graduate Acting Program. 

Eugene Oh, Max in Ours is the Future. Ours is the Past. and chris in inhabited

Eugene is an actor and playwright. Recent performances include Superhero Clubhouse's Mercury, Planet Connections Festivity 2010, 2G's Free Range and a workshop production of Phil Soltanoff's I/O. Eugene graduated from Dartmouth College, the National Theater Institute and is a resident member of the MaYi Writer's Lab. A big thanks to Jon, Kel, and the rest of the Red Fern artists.

Gio Perez*, galvez in inhabited

Gio Perez graduated from NYU's Experimental Theatre Wing in 2006. Since then he has been working mostly to nurture a film career and can be seen in movies like: Be Kind Rewind, Yelling to the Sky, The Bounty Hunter and Beastly.  He performs on stage any chance he gets and can often be seen at the Ensemble Studio Theatre.  Big thanks to Red Fern for letting me jump in!

Casey Robinson, Dario in (2) 11

Casey hails from Ft. Worth, TX where he he received his B.F.A. in Theatre from Texas Wesleyan University and was twice awarded the J. L. Hyde award for excellence in theatre. He received his MFA at Columbia University where he studied under many influential pioneers of theatre, including Adrei Serban, Kristin Linklater, and Ann Bogart, and was awarded the rare Bob Hope Scholarship. Casey’s recent credits include Grotowski’s Replikas of Apokalypsis cum Figuris with the Theatre Kuden in Puerto Rico, SINK with Performance Lab 115, Age of Iron with the much revered Classic Stage Company, Jack Perry is Alive…(and Dating) at the Ars Nova Festival, and the world premiere of the iconic Charles L. Mee’s Coney Island Avenue at the New York Theatre Workshop. Casey is proud to be an original member of the Overturn Theatre Ensemle for which he serves as Director of Development, and has performed the in OTE productions of Last Chapter, Associations of Hip, and We Too Are Mammals.  Casey is also a fight director and choreographer whose work has been seen in Age of Iron, Venus in Fur, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night, and Big Love. 

Michael Schantz, spider in inhabited

Michael Schantz: NY credits: Burn This (Manhattan Theatre Source), Neon Mirage (NY Fringe). Hamlet, The Hot L Baltimore, Strindberg/Strindberg, The Lady Windermere’s Fan, Mud River Stone, Tis’ Pity She’s a Whore and Once in a Lifetime at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. Regional: The Winter’s Tale (Chautauqua Theatre Company), Dracula, A Christmas Carol and Neon Mirage at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. Upcoming: Arms and the Man at The Guthrie. Training: M.F.A NYU

André St. Clair Thompson, Chantelle in Robert Mapplethorpe Doesn't Live Here Anymore

André St. Clair Thompson is twenty-seven year-old interdisciplinary artist: cultural critic, actor, performer, writer, director and producer.  He holds a M.F.A. in Acting from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), a M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University/ Tisch School of the Arts and an Honors B.A. in Sexuality and Society from Brown University.

As a black, gay, cross-dressing male, immigrant of working class upbringing, and a new American citizen, Thompson situates himself amongst various groups that have historically been cast as ‘other’ through various habitual/ritual processes of social formations and thus heavily discriminated against in America.  However, he has come out of many closets to face living while making numerous life discoveries through performance.  He finds that the construction of identities plays fluidly in the realm of performance and as a theatre artist he views the stage as a site of exploration.  He is interested in producing art that nurture non-mainstream voices and promote cultural and aesthetic diversity of viewpoint, experience and expression.

At CalArts, Thompson has been named an Ahmanson Scholar.  Both the CalArts Interdisciplinary Grant and the Ahmanson Grant have supported his artistic works.  At NYU, he was the recipient of the NYU/Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Student Fellowship.  At Brown University he was the recipient of support from the Creative Arts Council, CV Starr National Service Fellowship, and the Karen T. Romer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantship.  He is also an illustrious alumnus of A Better Chance (ABC).

Federico Trigo*, Ernesto in (2) 11

Federico Trigo is a recent graduate of the New School for Drama. His recent credits include the off-Broadway production of References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (dir. Pippin Parker); The Quarrel (dir. Robert Walden), as well as Nicky, Millicent the Magnificent: An Origins Story; Silva Vicarro, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton; John, The One Hundred Most Beautiful Names of Todd; Demetrius, A Midsummer Night's Dream (dir. Austin Pendleton).   www.federicotrigo.com

Megan Tusing, Lucy in Ours is the Future. Ours is the Past.

Megan is excited to be working with the Red Fern Theater Company. Some NY theatre credits include Wolves (Kids With Guns/59E59), Airborne (Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon '10), Princes of Waco (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Sine Wave Goodbye (The Paper Industry), When Is A Clock (Blue Coyote Theater Group), And The Spirit of Christmas Passed (The Brick), Stock Home (NYC Fringe), Happy Girl (Samuel French Festival).  A few Film/TV credits include Law & Order: SVU , Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Mercy, Postales (LoFu Productions), Odd Jobs (oddjobnation.com). Megan is a graduate of James Madison University. For more info please visit www.megantusing.com

Tai Verley, Riz in (2) 11

Tai Verley is delighted to be a part of this production. Some theatre credits include: Fefu & Her Friends (TinLily Productions, dir: Jillian Johnson), Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (dir: Anders Cato), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (dir: Austin Pendleton), You’re Invited (Old Vic Fellowship, dir: Jimmy Maize). She is also an M.F.A. Graduate of The New School for Drama and a member of the 2010 LAByrinth Theatre Company Summer Intensive Ensemble. Please check out www.taiverley.com for more details.

Tiffany Villarin, Muriel in FIRST OF THE MONTH, kel in inhabited

Tiffany last appeared in the World premiere of "Resurrection" in Diverse City Theater's The Pearl Project. Other New York credits include Nina in National Asian American Theatre Company's vaudeville inspired version of The Seagull, Six (Second Generation/2G), Josh Leftkowitz: Then and Now (Ars Nova), and various readings with Ma-Yi, Lark Play Development Center, New Dramatists, and The Ides of March 2010 with Columbia University. Chicago credits include the World premiere of Naomi Iizuka'sGhostwritten (Goodman Theatre), the Midwest premiere of David Henry Hwang's Golden Child (Silk Road Theatre Project), Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays project with Remy Bumppo, and The Search for Odysseus (Adventure Stage Chicago.) Film credits include Certainty (Peter Askin, dir.) Mass Romantic(Mudgeonsoul Productions), Yellow Wifebeater, and Autonomy (Columbia College Shorts). Tiffany participated in the 2007 Sundance Theatre Lab, working on Ghostwritten and Ann Marie Healy's Have You Seen Steve Steven? She is a Leviathan Theatre Lab member and a graduate of The Theatre School of DePaul University.