Cast & Creative

JOSÉ RIVERA

José Rivera’s 26 full-length plays have been seen nationally and internationally and translated into a dozen languages.  Obie Award-winners Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, both produced by The Public Theatre, NY, are taught at around the country, as well as his essay “36 Assumptions about Playwriting.”  

Other premiers include Cloud Tectonics (Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville), Boleros for the Disenchanted (Yale Rep), Sueño (Hartford Stage Company), Sonnets for an Old Century (Bard at the Gate), School of the Americas (Public Theatre), Massacre (Sing to Your Children) (Goodman Theatre), Brainpeople (ACT/San Francisco), Adoration of the Old Woman (La Jolla Playhouse), The House of Ramon Iglesia (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Another Word for Beauty (Goodman Theatre), The Maids  (INTAR), The Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Menier Chocolate Factory, London), Each Day Dies with Sleep (Circle Rep), Lovesong (Imperfect) (14^th Street Y, directed by the author), Your Name Means Dream (Contemporary American Theatre Festival, directed by the author), The Hours are Feminine (INTAR, directed by the author, winner 2024 HOLA Best Production Award), and A Lunar Rhapsody (Duke U workshop, directed by the author).   His “The Motorcycle Diaries” screenplay was nominated for 2005 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar – the first Puerto Rican writer so honored – as well as a BAFTA and Writers Guild Award, and took top screenwriting prizes in Argentina and Spain (Goya Award).   His film adaptation “On the Road” premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and his “Trade” was the first film to premiere at the United Nations.  Other films include “The 33” and “Letters to Juliet.”  Rivera co-created and produced “Eerie, Indiana,” (NBC) and was a consultant and staff writer on “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” (Showtime) 2019.  He has written 16 episodes of the upcoming Netflix series based on One Hundred Years of Solitude.  Rivera wrote and directed the award-winning short films “The Fall of a Sparrow” and “The Civet,” seen at film festivals around the country.  He has served on the boards of TCG and the Sundance Institute and was a Creative Advisor at Sundance Screenwriting Labs in Utah, Jordan, and India. 

ANNE O’SULLIVAN

Anne O’Sullivan celebrates over 50 years as a professional working actor with performances in over 130 productions. She has performed on Broadway, Off Broadway and regionally in plays at The McCarter Theatre, Williamstown, Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Old Globe, Bay St. Theatre, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, and Actors Theatre of Louisville among others.  She has played Dr Ruth K Westheimer in Becoming Dr. Ruth by Mark St Germain, in 5 productions around the US and is currently starring in and producing a play about Mary Harris Jones, the legendary labor leader Mother Jones.  Film and TV credits include guest starring in several Law & Orders, Sex and the City, Cosby, ER, Models Inc., Speed, and will soon be seen in the horror film The Home, starring Pete Davidson.

Ms. O’Sullivan has had roles written for her by Jose Rivera, David Ives, James Still and Keith Alan Benjamin.

SARA KOVIAK

Sara recently played the role of Mirella in the world premiere of The Hours Are Feminine, Off-Broadway, written and directed by José Rivera. Prior to that she starred in the world premiere of Your Name Means Dream at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival as Stacy, the role written for her by Rivera. Sara developed the play at CATF, Sundance, New York Theatre Workshop, Rattlestick, and Goodman (opposite 2-time Tony nominee Amy Morton). She plays ‘the girl in the music video,’ dancing in legendary Steve Conte’s solo hit “Flying”; and is a producer and sole performer in both award-winning films “The Civet” (by Jose Rivera) and “Reverie: a Dream” (dance film). Other recent projects: Signature Theatre with Theatre For One; McCarter Theatre and Paula Vogel’s Bard At The Gate; “A Possession” (horror film); Red Bull Theater; the lead in Rivera’s Lovesong (Imperfect); The Actors Studio with Chazz Palminteri; HBO’s “The Undoing” with Nicole Kidman; and producer/lead actor in the award-winning short “The Fall of a Sparrow”. At The Metropolitan Opera — where she performed as a classical dancer in multiple world premieres– she worked with directors Bart Sher, Mary Zimmerman, and Robert LePage. She worked with Steven Schwartz as the aerial soloist in Goodspeed’s tour of Pippin and danced at Lincoln Center in both Peter And The Wolf and Cinderella. She recently directed and starred in an exciting new dance film, “IX”. Sara is an accomplished choreographer for film and theatre, and a dance educator for students from all over the world, including Duke University, HB Studio, NYCDA, Boston Conservatory, ForMeNY (Japan), UNH, and Phillips Exeter Academy. www.SaraKoviak.com

Playwright

MICHAEL GRIFFO

Michael Griffo has written over 20 plays including 9th Street Water, The Date, Klaxson ’77, No More Sundays – winner of the New Jersey Perry Award for Best Original Play, Can Dina Even Spell Afghanistan? – finalist for the Reva Shiner Comedy Award, and CLOUDY and 5G/10B – both of which were published in Smith & Kraus’s 2005: The Best 10-Minute Plays for Two Actors. His High School plays – Material Girls and Promapocalypse! – are licensed by Theatrical Rights Worldwide.

He has published 15 novels with Kensington Books including Between Boyfriends, The Archangel Academy Trilogy, The Darkborn Legacy Series, and The Ferrara Family Mystery Series. His new mystery series launched in September 2023 with the publication of Murder In An Italian Village, followed by Murder In An Italian Café, which was published in September 2024.

His screenplays include THE SILVER REINDEER, THE CHRISTMAS SWAP, and HOLIDAY HIGH SCHOOL REUNION.

For more information, visit www.michaelgriffo.com.

NANCY MCKEON

Nancy McKeon  is an actress, director and producer best known for playing the role of Jo Polniaczek on the beloved long-running 1980s sitcom, The Facts of Life. 

She starred in and produced the sitcom Can’t Hurry Love and starred with Jean Smart in the sitcom Style & Substance.  She portrayed Inspector Jinny Exstead on the Lifetime police drama The Division from 2001 to 2004. She also directed two episodes. McKeon starred in numerous made-for-TV movies in the 1980s and 1990s, some including A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story, in which she portrayed the title role of Tracey Thurman, and Firefighter portraying the first female firefighter in Los Angeles County. Strange Voices, she portrayed a woman with schizophrenia. Love, Honor and Obey; The last Mafia Marriage , mini series with Eric Roberts. She produced many of these movies through her film company, Forest Hills Entertainment. In 1999, she wrote and directed her own short film, A Wakening. The film won two film festival awards. 

Playwright

D. W. GREGORY

D.W. Gregory’s plays frequently explore political issues through a personal lens and with a comedic twist. The New York Times called her “a playwright with a talent to enlighten and provoke” for her most-produced work, Radium Girls, about the famous case of industrial poisoning. Other plays include Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, a National New Play Network rolling world premiere (Contemporary American Theater Festival, Shadowland Stages, New Jersey Repertory Company); Molumby’s Million (Iron Age Theatre), nominated for a Barrymore Award by Theatre Philadelphia; A Thing of Beauty, winner of the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s 2023 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award; The Good Daughter and October 1962 (New Jersey Repertory Company); and a new musical comedy, The Yellow Stocking Play, with composer Steven M. Alper and lyricist Sarah Knapp. Her plays have been developed through the support of AATE, the National New Play Network (NNPN), the Playwrights’ Center, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the HBMG Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. A member of the Dramatists Guild, Gregory is an affiliated writer with the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and an affiliated artist with NNPN. Gregory also writes for youth theatre (Salvation Road and Penny Candy) and makes occasional appearances as a teaching artist. For seven years in a row, Dramatics magazine named Radium Girls among the 10 Most-Produced Plays in American High-School Theatre.

Director

JAMES GLOSSMAN

For NJ Rep, many productions and staged readings over the past two decades, most recently last season’s world premiere of A Tailor Near Me with Richard Kind and James Pickens, Jr., along with Circumference of a Squirrel, Tour De Farce, Two Jews Walk Into a War, and DW Gregory’s Memoirs of a Forgotten Man.  At LA’s Odyssey Theatre, he directed the long-overdue Los Angeles premiere of Noel Coward’s final play, A Song at Twilight (w/Orson Bean), which he later remounted with Bean and Alley Mills at Shadowland Stages (NY), where he is an Associate Artist — and has over the past several years directed the US premiere of John Cleese’s new farce Bang Bang! (w/Sean Astin & Scott Shepherd), the East Coast premiere of Jeff Daniels’ Flint, and Arthur Miller’s The Price (w/Orson Bean, Reathel Bean, & Stephanie Zimbalist).  Co-wrote and directed the music-theatre piece Shostakovich and the Black Monk, in collaboration with the multiple-Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet, which has been performed around the world from the Tanglewood, Wolf Trap, and Ravinia Festivals in the US to the Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, South Korea, with a rotating cast including David Strathairn, Sean Astin, Jay O. Sanders, Richard Thomas, Evie Colbert, Jeff DeMunn, and Len Cariou. His adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business had its world premiere at Portland Stage. In three decades of collaboration with writer and journalist Jim Lehrer, Glossman adapted & directed Lehrer’s novels Kick the Can, The Special Prisoner (w/William Schallert), directed his play The Will and Bart Show; and is currently developing Lehrer’s final play, Glock. During lockdown, Glossman directed for NJ Rep world premieres of video productions written for Zoom: Lia Romeo’s Sitting and Talking (w/Wendie Malick & Dan Lauria), Ken Weitzman’s Fire in the Garden (w/Sean Astin), and Nicky Glossman’s Portrait of a Woman in Repose (w/Paula Prentiss & Tony Shalhoub). In 2022, at Shadowland, he directed the world premiere of the time-traveling adventure Safe Home, which he co-wrote with Tom Hanks.  Their latest collaboration, See You Tomorrow, was workshopped in June 2024 at Portland Stage’s Little Festival of the Unexpected.  Later this fall, he will direct the world premiere of Nicky Glossman’s ensemble western The Road to Jerusalem.

NAJA SELBY-MORTON

NAJA SELBY-MORTON (Sarah/Victoria) is an actor, teaching artist, hardcore Jersey Girl, and MoM (Mother of Multiples). So grateful to be reunited with director Jim Glossman (CLYBOURNE PARK – Shadowland Stages, NY)! Past productions include the regional premiere of PIRIRA (Luna Stage, West Orange), ELECTRA (Theatre Row, NYC), and ‘DA KINK IN MY HAIR (National Black Theater Festival, Winston-Salem). She’s a company member of Jersey-based Experiential Theater Company, appearing in their touring children’s theater productions of SUNJATA KAMALENYA (August Wilson Cultural Center, Pittsburgh) and JOURNEY TO OZ (Two River Theater, Red Bank) to name a few. She’s taught acting and public speaking at The Institute of Music for Children, a non-profit arts education program in Elizabeth and participated in theater workshops at Otisville Correctional Facility in NY over the years. NYU Tisch Alum. Endless thanks to God, Jeffrey, Averi & Ava, Dottie & Yoli. Cheers to the great cast, crew and team at NJRep! For Brazell.

JOHN LESCAULT

JOHN LESCAULT (Sidney Gottlieb)New Jersey Rep debut. International: Defiant Requiem (Prague Spring Music Festival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Theatre Company/Macau Arts Festival). New York: Handbagged (59E59/ Round House Theatre), Le Deserteur (Opera Lafayette at Lincoln Center). Regional: Native Gardens, A Prayer for Owen Meany (Cincinnati Playhouse).John is based in Washington, DC where he has been seen in: The Second City’s Twist Your Dickens, Love Factually; and Opera Lafayette’s Sancho Ponca; as well as Beethoven and Dvorak with the National Symphony Orchestra (Kennedy Center), Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Studio Theatre, Olney Theatre, and CATF (among many others). Film/TV: Lincoln, The Day Lincoln Was Shot, Unsolved Mysteries, Beautiful Something, The Fox Hunter, and Dakota. John has been a narrator of commercial audiobooks and for the Library of Congress’s Talking Books program for 30 years. He is a graduate of The Catholic University of America.

AMIE BERMOWITZ

AMIE BERMOWITZ (Sylvia/Myer) is delighted to once again appear at New Jersey Rep, having performed in 2 world premieres, Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, as well as the musical, Bookends. She has been seen off-Broadway in Goldstein, the revival of Ruthless! The Musical, and several shows with Musicals Tonight, including Bells Are Ringing.  Regional credits include Shadowland Theatre, Round House Theatre, Arena Stage in DC, where she had the great pleasure of performing with the Flying Karamazov Brothers in The Brothers Karamazov.  She has sung at The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and has sailed the Caribbean performing in the mainstage shows aboard Disney Cruise Line.  Most recently, Amie was seen at the New York Theatre Festival, in a brand new musical, Had It Blue.

CHRISTOPHER DAFTSIOS

CHRISTOPHER DAFTSIOS (Stanley Glickman): Previous NJ Rep productions: Lily (playwright), The Jag (Broadway World Nomination), Swimming at the Ritz (Broadway World Nomination), Mercy, Substance of Bliss. Regional: TheatreWorks (SF Bay Area Critics Circle Award, Nan & the Lower Body), Palm Beach Dramaworks, John Drew Theatre/Guild Hall, West Virginia Public Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Luna Stage, Shadowland, The Gilbert Theatre (Pryor Nomination, A Streetcar Named Desire). New York Theater: Urban Stages, New York Repertory Theatre, Theatre Row, John Houseman, Anne L. Bernstein Theatre, Mint Theatre, Town Hall.  Film/T.V.: FBI, Law and Order, L&O: SVU, The Equalizer, Royal Pains, Conviction, A Haunting, Ball & Vase(opposite Austin Pendleton).Daftsios will appear in an upcoming episode of American Horror Stories as Detective Lou Samuels. He is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA, Actors Equity, The Dramatist Guild and The Actors Studio, Playwrights Division.

ELI GANIAS

ELI GANIAS (Don/Magistrate/Herman) After appearing in NJ Rep’s Theatre Brut and several readings, Eli is excited to be here in his first NJ Rep production.  Other theater includes TALLEY’S FOLLY (Matt) PTNJ and Oldcastle Theater in VT; BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS (Jack) and MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS (Selznick) at Oldcastle Theater.  He was in the original company of TONY N’ TINA’S WEDDING in NY and LA.  TV: LAW & ORDER, L&O: CRIMINAL INTENT, 100 CENTRE. Film: AMERICAN SPLENDOR.

Playwright

MICHAEL WALEK

MICHAEL WALEK (Playwright). A proud alumni of the emerging writer’s group Youngblood, his play, Have You Met Jane Goodall & Her Mother will premiere at Ensemble Studio Theatre in March 2025. The Bookstore is his first play. 

Director

WILLIAM CARDEN

WILLIAM CARDEN (Director) served as Artistic Director of the Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) for 15 years (2007-2022). In 2015 EST was given a Special Drama Desk Award for its unwavering commitment to developing new American plays. At EST he directed productions of Against the Hillside by Sylvia Khoury, The Good Muslim by Zakiyyah Alexander, Please Continue by Frank Basloe, Headstrong by Patrick Link, Lenin’s Embalmers by Vern Thiessen, Pidgeon, PTSD and Zero by Tommy Smith and Lucy by Damien Atkins.  He was artistic director of the HB Playwrights Foundation for eleven years where he directed the Off-Broadway productions of Mrs. Klein and Collected Stories starring Uta Hagen.  His many other productions there include Horton Foote’s The Habitation of Dragons, Burnt Piano by Justin Fleming and Voir Dire by Joe Sutton.  He directed The Dew Point at Summer Play Festival, The Young Girl and the Monsoon at Playwrights Horizons, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the Stratford Festival in Canada. As an actor he played leading roles Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Circle Rep, WPA, and EST and also worked at numerous regional theatres including Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Huntington, Humana Festival, and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. On Broadway, he created the title role in the original, award-winning production of Short Eyes by Miguel Piñero.

Actor

JANET ZARISH

JANET ZARISH:  New York theater credits include leading roles at The Public Theater, The Roundabout, Primary Stages, Minetta Lane Theater, Harold Clurman Theater, The John Houseman Theatre,The Pearl Theatre, New York Stage and Film, and The Daryl Roth.  Regional Theatre credits include Yale Rep, The Long Wharf Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre, The McCarter Theatre, Sundance, The Old Globe, ACT Seattle, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Hartford Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Humana Festival at Actor’s Theatre Of Louisville.  Film includes: Brooklyn To Manhattan, Life In Flight, The Zoo, Season Of Youth, The Next Big Thing, Object Of My Affection, Malcolm X, Mystic Pizza, Without A Trace, Danny.  Television includes:  The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Forever, Law & Order, Mad About You, Seinfeld (Rolling Stone’s “Top Ten Seinfelds” list) The Client, Homicide, NY Undercover, The Webster Report, Lee Halpern on One Life To Live, The Webster Report, Love and War amongst others. She is Head of Acting at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program and directs at NYU, The Juilliard School and Ensemble Studio Theater where she is a member.

Actor

QUENTIN CHISHOLM

QUENTIN CHISHOLM (he/him) (Spencer). Select acting credits include: Theatre – Almost, Maine (HB Playwrights Theatre); Bulrusher (Dartmouth College), Faith, Hope and Charity (Dartmouth College); TV/Film – West (dir. Micah Stuart), The Sound the Sea Makes (dir. Maria Paula Quesada), Keepsake (dir. Rachel Patrice), as well as an upcoming pilot from Carlos Cardona. Quentin has studied acting at Terry Knickerbocker Studio, HB Studio, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and Atlantic Acting School. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, where he was also a Division-1 soccer player. He would like to give special thanks to his family, as well as the teaching of Celestine Rae, TKS faculty, Brenna Palughi, the Hagen Core faculty at HB Studio, and Bonnie Shumofsky Bloom and Lucius Robinson at Stewart Talent.

Actor

ARI DERAMBAKHSH

ARI DERAMBAKHSH (Brittany) Recent Credits: English (The Old Globe), English (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre), Education: BFA in Acting from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe. Ari is bicoastal to NYC and LA. website: arideram.com ; @arideram on Instagram. 

Actor

ARIELLE GOLDMAN

ARIELLE GOLDMAN (Abby) is an actress, writer & filmmaker. She was recently seen on stage in Lincoln Center’s world premier play Let’s Call Her Patty alongside Rhea Perlman and Leslie Kritzer, as well as in George Street Playhouse’s world premiere of The Pianist adapted by Emily Mann. Arielle’s most recent short film Kiss My Ass, a pro-abortion inter-generational ghost story, won the Team Choice Award at the 2023 Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival and screened at Bushwick Film Festival and the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival. Her first short film, Day One, was featured in The Future of Film is Female, Nitehawk Shorts Festival, New York Lift Off Festival and NoBudge. She leads the film Consider the Lilies directed by Cristina Spina (Best Short, Rome Film Festival) and Sarah Baskin’s upcoming short I Want To Go To Moscow. Previous television credits include: Genevieve Everidge in The Knick directed by Steven Soderbergh, Fishkill directed by Bob Balaban, and recurring as Eliana on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Arielle received her MFA from the NYU Tisch Graduate Acting Program and her BFA from The University of Michigan. She paints in watercolor. www.ariellegoldman.com

Playwright

JULIA BLAUVELT

JULIA BLAUVELT is an NYC-based playwright and screenwriter.  Her work has been produced at New Normal Rep and received residences at Orchard Project and Athena Writers Lab.  Her plays have been finalists for the WP Theater Playwrights Lab, Neukom Playwriting Award, and the New Voices Award.  She holds her MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch.

Actor

JILL EIKENBERRY 

JILL EIKENBERRY is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Ann Kelsey on NBC’s long-running hit series LA Law, which earned Jill four Emmy nominations, two Golden Globe nominations and a Golden Globe Award. Jill has starred on Broadway in Moonchildren, All Over Town, Summer Brave, Watch on the Rhine and Onward Victoria. She won an Obie award for her off-Broadway performances in Life Under Water and Lemon Sky.  Jill’s more recent New York appearances have been in Enter Laughing, the Musical, The Kid, for which she received a Drama Desk Nomination, Jericho, Evening at the Talk House by Wallace Shawn, and Fern Hill by her husband Michael Tucker – first at The New Jersey Repertory Company and then at 59E59 Theater in New York. Her other appearance at NJRep was in Michael’s first play, The M Spot. This past year Jill and Michael appeared in a filmed version of his play, The Nice Man Cometh. Jill’s feature films include Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, Rich Kids, Hide in Plain Sight, Arthur, The Manhattan Project, Something Borrowed, Young Adult, and In Reality. She has starred in numerous TV movies including An Inconvenient Woman, Chantilly Lace and the sequel, Chantilly Bridge, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Last fall she was a guest star on The Good Fight. And in March she had a guest starring role on the pilot for a reboot of LA Law. Jill has recently been part of a new streaming theater company, New Normal Rep, which has had two successful seasons.

Actor

ELLA DERSHOWITZ

Off-Broadway/NYC: Can You Forgive Her? (Vineyard Theatre), Intimacy (The New Group), Card and Gift (Clubbed Thumb), Connected (59E59), On the Verge (Attic Theater), Three Musketeers: 1941 (Project Y), A Splintered Soul (Rosalind Productions). Regional: Joy and Pandemic (The Huntington), Actually (Aurora), The Wolves (Capital Stage), Sovereignty and Thomas and Sally (Marin Theatre Company), The Siegel (City Lights), 4,000 Miles and You Will Remember Me (Hudson Stage), Visitors and The Screenwriter’s Daughter(Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse), Twelfth Night (Payomet). TV/Film: Phil Spector (HBO), The Affair (Showtime), Lie to Me (Fox), Knife Fight, Two-Bit Waltz, Addiction: A 60’s Love Story, I Am Michael, Pitching Tents. Training: Yale University and LAMDA. When not acting, Ella makes crossword puzzles.

Playwright

NANDITA SHENOY

Nandita Shenoy is a New York-based writer-actor who loves hearing an audience laugh.  She is delighted to return to NJ Rep after working here as an actor in Mercy.  Her play The Future Is Female… received its world premiere at the Flint Repertory Theater last winter.  It was a Finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and her Rage Play was named to the 2020 Kilroys List.  Her Washer/Dryer has been produced multiple times nationally after its world premiere at LA’s East West Players and an Off-Broadway production in which she also starred.  Her first full-length, Lyme Park: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature, was produced by the Hegira in Washington, DC, and Satisfaction had a developmental run at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.  One-acts, Marrying Nandini, By Popular Demand, Rules of Engagement, You Are Here, and A More Perfect Date have been produced in New York City and regionally.  Nandita has acted in world premiers of new plays by Richard Dresser, Madhuri Shekar, Chelsea Marcantel, Adam Szymkowicz, and Eric Pfeffinger as well as a season at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.  Nandita won the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting, a 2018 Mellon Creative Research Fellowship at the University of Washington School of Drama in partnership with Ma-Yi Theater Company, and 2022 Hermitage Fellowship.  She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, dtfwaw, and the Dramatists Guild. She sits on the Steering Committee of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) which received Tony Honor for Excellence in Theater last year. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University.  www.nanditashenoy.com

Director

PETER J. KUO

PETER J. KUO is a theatre director, producer, writer, and educator focusing on raising the visibility of marginalized communities. Born and raised in Southern California, he currently resides in San Francisco where he is the Director of the Conservatory at American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), where he serves on the Staff EDI Committee. Recently directing Madhuri Shekar’s In Love and Warcraft entirely on Zoom, he is a huge proponent for Live Video Theatre and its ability to be accessible to all.

He earned his MFA in Directing at The New School for Drama in New York City. Named as one of TCG’s Rising Leaders of Color in the Round 3 cohort, he is also a co-founder of Artists at Play, an Asian American theatre collective that produces Los Angeles premieres of works for Asian Americans. For Artists at Play, he directed their inaugural production of Lauren Yee’s Ching Chong Chinaman (Backstage Critic’s Pick), and Michael Golamco’s Cowboy Versus Samurai; as well as readings of Boni Alvarez’s Marabella, Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman, and Donald Margulies’ Dinner with Friends. He served as the production manager for A. Rey Pamatmat’s Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (GLAAD and Ovation Nominated). Other favorite directing credits include Christopher Chen’s MUTT: Let’s All Talk About Race!, Adam Gwon’s Ordinary Days, Elizabeth Wong’s Letters to a Student Revolutionary, Jackie Sibblies-Drury’s We Are Proud to Present…, and Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World. 

Actor

TIM LIU

TIM LIU was born and raised in NJ. He most recently performed in Cambodian Rock Band at Arena Stage (DC) and ACT/5th Ave (Seattle). Additional theatre credits include Off-Broadway performances with Audible Theatre (Good Enemy, dir. Chay Yew), Pearl Theatre Company (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, dir. Eric Tucker), Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, HERE Arts Center, and other NYC Theaters. Regionally he has worked with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, B Street Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, and Centenary Stage Company. Recent TV and Film credits include: Pam and Tommy (HULU), The Endgame (NBC), New Amsterdam (NBC), Girls on the Bus (HBO), A Father’s Son (w/ Ronny Chieng and Tzi Ma), Knock at the Cabin (M Night Shyamalan).

Actor

LIPICA SHAH

Lipica Shah (she/her) is a Jersey native and NYC-based actor, voice actor, and alto who thrives on collaboration and new play development. As a longtime standardized patient at Bellevue/NYU Langone, she’s thrilled to make her NJ Rep debut in a play so close to her heart! Lipica has originated roles at Manhattan Theatre Club, The New Group, Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Cal Shakes, and American Conservatory Theater, among others. On screen she’s appeared on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, HBO, Showtime, USA, Comedy Central, and Netflix. Hear her in the video game Starfield and English dubs of Pokémon, A Silent Voice, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, and more. As an inclusion advocate, she co-founded the nonprofit 1497 (which recently hosted the second annual South Asian Lodge at the Sundance Film Festival) and is on the Steering Committee of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition, with whom she received Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre. www.LipicaShah.com

Actor

CHING VALDES-ARAN 

CHING VALDES-ARAN is an award-winning theater artist who resides in NYC. New Jersey Rep: Debut. Selected Roles: This spring she will appear in Dave Malloy’s musical, Three Houses, at the Signature Theatre in NY directed by Annie Tippe. Aying (OBIE Award, Flipzoids, Ma-Yi Theatre), Imelda Marcos (Lucille Lortel nomination, Dogeaters, Public Theatre), Lady Macbeth, Lady Capulet, Duke Senior (NYSF “Shakespeare on Broadway”, Belasco Theatre), Mother Courage (Ma-yi Theatre), Medea (Medea, Pan Asian Repertory), Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba, NAATCO), Clytemnestra (Iphigenia in Aulis, Yale Rep), Athena (Iphigenia in Taurus (La Mama E.T.C. & Greek Int’l Festival), Empress Tzushi (Empress of China, Cincinnati Playhouse), Philoktetes (Shatterhand Company, Berliner Fiespiele). Most recently she played Mom in the all Asian cast of Sam Shepard’s True West at People’s Light. Other Awards: 2021 Ruthie Award, Fox Foundation Fellow, Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, New Dramatist’s Charles Bowden Award, Ma-Yi Award for Artistic Excellence, MAP grantee (Foundry), U.S. Congressional Award for Arts & Culture, others. Selected Films & TV: Missing Link (Golden Globe, 6 Oscar nomination), Mula Kung Ano And Noon, What it was Before (Palm de Oro, Locarno Film Festival), Across the Universe, Sex & The City 1, Blacklist, Others. Her work has been seen nationally and internationally. Most recently in Geoff Sobelle’s Home that premiered at BAM in 2017 and continuous to tour through 2024.

KATHARINE GRAHAM

SHARON LAWRENCE

You may know her from her multiple Emmy nominated and SAG Award winning portrayal of ADA Sylvia Costas Sipowitz in the ground breaking NYPD Blue or as a stay-at-home prostitute in DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, or as Izzy’s tender but ditzy Mom on GREY’S ANATOMY (for which she earned her 4th EMMY nod) or a murderous realtor on MONK or a sociopathic serial killer on LAW AND ORDER:SVU, coming to terms with her long lost daughter on RIZZOLI & ISLES, speaking out for protection of endangered polar bears for the World Wildlife Fund or beating up Larry David on CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Her 5th EMMY nomination came in 2021 as Lead Actress in a digital series -THE GAZE www.thegazeseries.com Currently you can find her starring in the series JOE PICKETT based on the best seller of the same name. Previously she starred opposite Kirsten Dunst in the Showtime series ON BECOMING A GOD IN CENTRAL FLORIDA, and HOME BEFORE DARK for Apple. Many recurring roles include REBEL with Katy Sagal and Andy Garcia, CW’s DYNASTY and CBS’s CRIMINAL MINDS, Showtime’s SHAMELESS, Netflix’s THE RANCH opposite Sam Elliott, Amazon’s THE LAST TYCOON, and the critically acclaimed series QUEEN SUGAR produced by Ava DuVernay. Also, Jenny Mollen’s series I LIKE YOU JUST THE WAY I AM for ABC digital, the unforgettable crossover episode of HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER and SCANDAL, BLUNT TALK with Sir Patrick Stewart and NBC’s GAME OF SILENCE and several beloved holiday movies including the 2-time GLAAD Award nominated THE CHRISTMAS HOUSE on Hallmark. She headlined her own comedy series FIRED UP with Leah Rimini, Mark Feurestein and Jonathan Banks for NBC and starred in LADIES MAN starring Alfred Molina and Betty White for CBS. Other prominent appearances include her much Twittered about stints on ONE TREE HILL and DROP DEAD DIVA Audiences saw her on COMMUNITY, THE MENTALIST, BODY OF PROOF. Film work includes, SOLACE with Sir Anthony Hopkins, THE LOST HUSBAND with Leslie Bibb and Josh Duhamel, OF MIND AND MUSIC with Anjeannue Ellis and the indie hit MIDDLE OF NOWHERE directed by Ava DuVernay (Best Director at Sundance Film Fest 2012; two GOTHAM AWARD and four SPIRIT nominations.) She headlined her own comedy series FIRED UP with Leah Rimini, Mark Feurestein and Jonathan Banks for NBC and starred in LADIES MAN starring Alfred Molina and Betty White for CBS. Other prominent appearances include her much Twittered about stints on ONE TREE HILL and DROP DEAD DIVA Audiences saw her on COMMUNITY, THE MENTALIST, BODY OF PROOF. An accomplished stage actress, and 2012 Lunt-Fontane Ten Chimneys Fellow, Sharon most recently appeared as Katharine Graham in a solo play about the lauded publisher of the Washington Post, and the IAMA Theatre Company member in the West Coast premiere of A KID LIKE JAKE directed by Jennifer Chambers. LA theatre includes her acclaimed performance in THE MYSTERY OF LOVE AND SEX at the Mark Taper Forum, playing twenty different women in the LOVE, NOEL cabaret at The Wallis, -Noel Coward’s final play, A. SONG AT TWILIGHT and as Vivian Leigh in ORSON’S SHADOW for which she was nominated for an Ovation Award, and won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award. She created the role of Maureen in the premier of Theresa Rebeck’s POOR BEHAVIOR at the Mark Taper Forum and her last Broadway appearance was as Velma Kelly in CHICAGO. Sharon earned her BA in Journalism in 1983 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, while playing leads in many productions at UNC-CH Playmakers Repertory Theater including THE THREE SISTERS, THE GREEKS, and Juliet in an original musical of Shakespeare’s most famous romance called STAR-CROSSED LOVERS. She has been honored with UNC-Chapel Hill’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award, served on the BoD for the University’s General Alumni Association. She is the 2nd VP of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation and is current Chair of the Board of Heal The Bay. Other acknowledgments of achievement include Prism, Method Fest, and Drama Logue Awards.

Playwright

INDA CRAIG-GALVÁN

Inda Craig-Galván writes stuff – mostly plays and TV. Her work often explores intra-racial conflicts and politics within the African-American community. Grounded in reality with a touch of magical realism that fucks with time & memories. Inda’s currently developing new works of theatre on commission with The Old Globe and Round House Theatre. Produced plays include A HIT DOG WILL HOLLER (Skylight Theatre & Playwrights’ Arena co-production, Los Angeles), BLACK SUPER HERO MAGIC MAMA (Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles) I GO SOMEWHERE ELSE (Playwrights’ Arena, Los Angeles). Inda is the recipient of the Kesselring Prize, Jeffry Melnick New Playwright Award, Blue Ink Playwriting Prize, Jane Chambers Student Award for Feminist Playwriting, and Stage Raw Best Playwright Award. Inda’s plays have been included on the Kilroys List (twice) and Steppenwolf Theatre’s The Mix. Inda has developed & presented work at Bay Area Playwrights Festival, NNPN Showcase, Ashland New Play Festival, Orlando Shakes, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab, The Old Globe Powers New Voices Festival, Kitchen Dog Theatre New Works Festival, Black & Latino Playwrights Conference, WomenWorks, Humanitas, Chalk Repertory Theatre, Skylight Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Trustus Theatre Playwrights Festival, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Intiman, and others. Aside from theatre, Inda is a TV writer on the upcoming series: Will Trent (ABC). She previously wrote on the JJ Abrams series Demimonde (HBO), the upcoming Happy Face (Paramount+), How to Get Away with Murder (ABC), and The Rookie (ABC). She is in development with Universal TV Studios to write and executive produce Cotton Club Princess, adapted from the novel by Karla Diggs. a hit dog will holler, Inda’s 4-episode fiction podcast adapted from her play, was produced by Radiotopia.fm and is available now wherever you get your podcasts.

DR. LYMAN HIDALGO-NYQUIST

KEVIN O’ROURKE

KEVIN O’ROURKE has performed on Broadway in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, SPOILS OF WAR, and ALONE TOGETHER, as well as THE CITY OF CONVERSATION at Lincoln Center, OUTSIDE MULLINGAR at The White Heron, THE NIGHT ALIVE at John Drew, productions at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Arena Stage, Roundabout, Long Wharf, Primary Stages, Barrington Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Baltimore’s Centerstage. His roles on television include MADAM SERETARY, LAW AND ORDER, THE SOPRANOS, OUTSIDERS, ELEMENTARY and VEEP. He also won a SAG Award for his role as Edward Bader on BOARDWALK EMPIRE and was nominated for his role on AMC’s REMEMBER WENN. His film credits include THE IRISHMAN with Robert DiNiro and Al Pacino, AMERICAN PICKLE, VICE VERSA, THE AVIATOR, TATOO and FREEHELD. As a director, Kevin staged the NY premiere of Abi Morgan’s TENDER, Jonathon Draxton’s SOLDIER at HERE Arts Center, and THE PHYSICISTS at Williamstown Theatre Festival. In 2005 he founded the WILLIAMS COLLEGE SUMMER THEATRE LAB and for 10 years served as its Artistic Director.

Playwright / Cast

JAMES HINDMAN

After premiering his one-man show, What Doesn’t Kill You, here at NJ Rep, the show was recently produced at The International Gay Dublin Theatre festival where it received a 5 Star review in the Irish Times and was nominated for three Oscar Wilde Awards. He was co-creator and director of NJ Rep’s recent musical, The Pin Up Girls and his play Multiple Family Dwelling was produced here in 2018. As a writer, Off Broadway credits include: Popcorn Falls directed by Tony Award Winner Christian Borle, Pete ‘n’ Keely (Outer Critics Award nomination, two Drama Desk nominations), The Audience (Drama Desk nomination), Being Audrey (Transport Group, NEA Grant recipient), The Gorges Motel (NY Fringe Festival). A Terrance McNally Award finalist, his plays have been performed and developed at The Vineyard Theatre, Second Stage, Long Wharf, Walnut Street, Goodspeed, Denver Theatre Center, New Jersey Rep and Papermill Playhouse. Co-Writer: A Christmas Survival Guide, The Rat Pack Lounge (Carbonell nomination) and The Bikinis. Next up: NOW COMES THE FUN PART at Penguin Rep. As an actor he’s performed on Broadway in: Mary Poppins, The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1776, City Of Angels, A Grand Night For Singing and Once Upon A Mattress. Some film and television: HBO’s ‘The Gilded Age’, ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’, Marvel’s ‘Iron Fist’, ‘The Report’, ‘Oceans 8’, ‘The Americans’, Steven Spielberg’s ‘Public Morals’, ‘Madam Secretary’ and ‘The Sopranos’. He is thrilled to be working with this wonderful team at New Jersey

Cast

TOM SOUHRADA

Broadway & National Tours: MARY POPPINS, KINKY BOOTS, EVITA, MY FAIR LADY, THE KING & I, CS Lewis’ THE GREAT DIVORCE and THE BOY FRIEND (Directed by Julie Andrews) Off-B’way: POPCORN FALLS (Directed by Christian Borle) DESPERATE MEASURES (New World Stages) LIBERTY (Theatre 80) THE KID WHO WOULD BE POPE (Ars Nova) MARDI GRAS/THE LAST WORD (York) BROKEN HANDS (NY Fringe Festival Award of Excellence), THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, TONY AND TINA’S WEDDING. Regionally, Tom has performed at many of the top theatre across the country, such as Goodspeed, St. Louis Rep, Gateway, Ogunquit, Cincinnati Playhouse, FL Rep, etc. TV & Film: LAW & ORDER, THE GOOD FIGHT, SUBMISSIONS ONLY, MARRY ME & as “Prof. Ed M. Ology” & “Mimi” on the children’s YouTube series THE HELLO YOU! SHOW. Graduate of NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.