the cast

NADIA BOWERS (Ella )

Broadway credits: The Farnsworth Invention, Doubt, and Metamorphoses. Off Broadway: many shows, most recently Rajiv Joseph’s Obie award winning Describe the Night (Atlantic Theater), Mona Mansour’s The Way West (Labyrinth), Church and State (New World Stages). TV: Orange is the New Black, Quantico, The Strain, NCIS, every incarnation of Law and Order. Film: upcoming: The Outside Story, Unintended, Josie and Jack, The Drummer. As a writer, her piece “Dear Dealer” was featured on This American Life and a shorter version in TIME online. She’s working on a memoir about her sister with the same title and a project based on a book her father wrote. BA: Dartmouth College, Sociology and French. MFA: Tisch, NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. www.nadiabowers.com



Kimberly Chatterjee (Sonia )

Pride and Prejudice (Primary Stages), Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons), The Tempest (Classical Theatre of Harlem); Regional: Noises Off (The Guthrie); Pride and Prejudice (world premiere), The General From America, As You Like It, Macbeth, Measure for Measure (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, two seasons); As You Like It (Folger Theatre). TELEVISION “High Maintenance." TRAINING B.F.A., New York University: New Studio on Broadway. Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, NYU in London. All the love to her sweet friends, family, and cast! www.KimberlyChatterjee.com



Jed Diamond (The Professor )

Jed is an actor and a professor, for real, at the University of Tennessee / Clarence Brown Theatre in Knoxville, where he is head of acting. Clarence Brown credits: A Christmas Carol, Of Mice and Men, A Shayna Maidel, Noises Off, Galileo, Woyzeck, Oedipus Rex, etc. Based in New York ‘86-‘05: All My Sons (Roundabout); Blood Knot (Acting Company & Arena Stage); The African Company Presents Richard III (Arena Stage); Power Plays (Second Stage), Othello (Public Theatre), etc. Founding faculty, the Shakespeare Lab (NY Shakespeare Festival), and the Actors Center. MFA: NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. Thanks, Jeff, Li, Kate, and Quinn.



aNDREW HOVELSON (Dr. Aster )

Broadway: Lucky Guy (w/ Tom Hanks), The Father, An Enemy of the People. Off-Broadway: Mother of the Maid (w/Glenn Close, The Public) Othello (NYSF), An Ordinary Muslim (NYTW), As You Like It (NYSF), Tamburlaine the Great (TFANA), GoldenAge (MTC). TV: “The Blacklist,” “FBI,” “Shades of Blue,” “Blue Bloods,” “TURN: Washington’s Spies,” “The Good Wife,” “Mysteries of Laura,” “Unforgettable,” “ER.” Film: Stranger in the Dunes, The Magnificent Meyersons. MFA:NYU Graduate Acting. www.andrewhovelson.com



kevin isola(Vanya)

Broadway: Brooklyn Boy Off-Broadway: Our Lady of 121st Street (The Signature), By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Second Stage), The World Over, The Water Children (Playwrights Horizons), Twelfth Night, Venus, WASP and Other Plays (NYSF/The Public Theater), Everett Beekin (Lincoln Center), The New Bozena (Cherry Lane). Regional: Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Guthrie, The McCarter, The Old Globe, Yale Repertory Film: Miles, How The Grinch Stole Christmas Television: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (upcoming), “Billions”, “Bull”, “The Blacklist”, “Elementary”, “Deadbeat”, “Smash”, “Fringe”, “Damages”, “Law and Order”



BARBARA KINGSLEY (Babs )

Barbara is a multi-tasking theater artist whose stage credits include over two hundred productions – from Broadway, (August: Osage County) Off-Broadway (Uncanny Valley) to theaters large and small across the country: Life Sucks. (Wheelhouse Theater Co.) Significant Other, The Rivals, Gertrude Stein and a Companion, The House of Blue Leaves, The Glass Menagerie, A Skull in Connemara, Uncle Vanya, and many more. She has appeared in an array of films, including Playing with Matches (with Dominic Chianese) Boarding School, Best Man Down, Ticket Out, Older than America, The Straight Story, and Sweet Land. Television appearances include: Jessica Jones, The Path, Law & Order: SVU, and Time After Time. Barbara’s play, Under This Roof, premiered at the Guthrie Theater, in co-production with Full Circle Theater in 2018.



STACEY LINNARTZ (Pickles )

Stacey is thrilled to be performing with Wheelhouse again after An Enemy of the People in 2017. Off-Broadway: Life Sucks. (Wheelhouse Theater Co.)Strange Bare Facts (Signature), God of Vengeance (Barrow Group), Snake and Falcon (La Mama), Modotti (Theatre Row), Ghosting (The Public Theatre). Regional: Shipwrecked! (Capital Rep), A Streetcar Named Desire, Uncle Vanya (New Harmony), Eclectic Society (Walnut Street), As You Like It (Smoky Mountain Shakespeare). London: Sirocco (Royal Court). Film: Sales Pitch, The Last 48, The Weekend. Television: Gossip Girl, As the World Turns, Rescue Me. Web: First World Problem, Dinner with Mom. Partner in the production company Thirdwing LTD and Founder/Artistic Director of Kids Creative Collective Inc. MFA, NYU Graduate Acting Program. staceylinnartz.com



MICHAEL BROADHURST (Standby - Vanya, Dr. Aster, The Professor )

Recent credits include: NYC: Pride and Prejudice (U/S, Primary Stages),Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Animus Theatre Co.) Regionally: Treasure Island (Cincinnati Playhouse in The Park), Twelfth Night, The Book of Will, The General From America, Measure for Measure, As You Like It, So Please You (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival),The Seagull,Three Sisters, Exit The King, Lucy’s Wedding (The Living Room Theatre Co.) Love, always, to R.



Jenny Strassburg (Standby- Sonia, Pickles, Ella, Babs )

Jenny is thrilled to be joining the cast. New York credits include: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Masterworks Theatre/Titania), Macbeth (NY Classical Theatre/Lady M), Echoes of The War (The Mint/Emma), A Class Act (New World Stages/Dorothy). Recent roles include: Shakespeare in Love (Viola, Capital Rep), Sex with Strangers (Olivia, Capital Rep), A Streetcar Named Desire (Virginia Stage, Stella). She has been a member of the Repertory company at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for the last 3 years.



creative Team

AARON POSNER (Playwright)

Aaron Posner is a Helen Hayes, Jeff Award and Barrymore Award-winning director and playwright. He is a founder and former Artistic Director of Philadelphia's Arden Theatre, an Associate Artist at both the Folger Theatre and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. His adaptations include Chaim Potok's The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev (both of which have enjoyed successful runs at more than 50 theatres across the country and the latter of which ran for ten months Off-Broadway and won both the Outer Circle Critics Award for Best New Off-Broadway play and the John Gassner Award), as well as Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, Mark Twain's A Murder, A Mystery, and a Marriage, an adaptation of three Kurt Vonnegut short stories, entitled Who Am I This Time? (and other conundrums of love). His Chekhov inspired Stupid Fucking Bird debuted at Woolly Mammoth and won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play as well as the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Play or Musical. It has received productions and awards from around the country including The Pearl Theater in NYC. His second Chekhov adaptation Life Sucks premiered at Theatre J and the third, No Sisters, was produced by Studio Theatre. He received a Jeff Award for Best Director for his work on The Tempest at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Aaron was raised in Eugene, Oregon, graduated from Northwestern University, is an Eisenhower Fellow, and lives near Washington, DC.



JEFF WISE (Director)

Jeff Wise is a Drama Desk nominated director for LIFE SUCKS, a Tony-Award Winning producer, actor and founder of Wheelhouse Theater. With Wheelhouse, Jeff has directed Kurt Vonnegut’s Happy Birthday, Wanda June, Ibsens’ An Enemy of the People, Shakespeares' Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar and the world premiere of DANNYKRISDONNAVERONICA by Lawrence Dial. He co-produced the critically acclaimed world premiere In the Room with Slant Theatre Project. Jeff is a producer of the critically acclaimed Broadway revival of Once on this Island, as well as Gettin’ The Band Back Together. In NYC he as directed productions of Henry IV Part 2, Hamlet, BACK, and Dear Penthouse. Stage credits include Hamlet, Lend me a Tenor, Pajama Game, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, BACK, Three Sisters, Six Degrees of Separation, Bus Stop, and La Ronde. Jeff received his MFA in Acting from New York University.



BRITTANY VASTA (Scenic Designer)

Brittany Vasta is a Brooklyn based scenic designer for live performance. Wheelhouse Theater credits: Happy Birthday, Wanda June, An Enemy of the People, DKDV, Romeo & Juliet, and Caesar. Her work has been seen recently at: The Duke, Cherry Lane, A.R.T. NY, JACK, Gene Frankel, 4th Street Theatre, 59E59, Theatre Row, NY Times Building, Portland Stage Company, Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, Kansas City Rep, UDel Rep, Bowdoin College, and Black Box Okhla New Delhi. Up next: the new musical Octet at Signature Theatre. Recent Associate Design: The Lifespan of a Fact (Bway, Studio 54) and Fairview (Soho Rep). United Scenic Artists USA-829. MFA, NYU. brittanyvasta.com



CHRISTOPHER METZGER (Costume Designer)

Wheelhouse Theater: Happy Birthday, Wanda June, An Enemy of the People, DannyKrisDonnaVeronica. Recent work: La Traviata (Philharmonia of New York), Men on Boats (Yale Dramat), Levity (premiere) and [Title of Show] (Big Sky Theater), Tosca (Opera Roanoke), Outlying Islands (Sugarglass Theatre; Dublin, Ireland), Elijah (premiere, BVT), Julius Caesar (The Acting Company), The Healing (premiere, TBTB), and Mothership (NYCB / CI). Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Company: Beijing International Contemporary Dance Festival, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center. Associate: Sweat (Broadway). MFA, NYU. Member Local USA 829.



DREW FLORIDA (Lighting Design)

NY theatre credits include: David Mixner’s Who Fell into the Outhouse, and David Mixner’s 1969 (Ali Forney Center), Happy Birthday, Wand June, An Enemy of the People, DannyKrisDonnaVeronica, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar (Wheelhouse Theatre), Hamlet10, Titus Andronicus (New York Shakespeare Exchange), Summertime (Between Two Boroughs), Public Forum: Talking About Race (The Public Theater), Marathon Dancing (The New School/La MaMa), The π-roject (La MaMa, Montreal Fringe Festival and The Greek Cultural Center), Lyrics from Lockdown (The Ford Foundation), Peninsula (NYC Fringe, Manhattan Rep). Drew received a 2017 Broadway World Regional Nomination for best lighting on The Adventures of Robin Hood (Flint Youth Theatre), as well as a 2017 Wilde Award Nomination for Lighting Design of Willy Wonka (Flint Youth Theatre). Recipient of the Midtown International Theatre Festival’s 2012 Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for a Short Subject for Stage Reading by Sean Michael Welch. He is the owner of Ch’i Design Studio and a proud member of the United Scenic Artists Local #829. www.drewfloridalighting.com



MARK VAN HARE (Sound Design)

Mark Van Hare is a composer and sound designer working in New York City. Recent credits include Happy Birthday, Wanda June with Wheelhouse Theater Company, Brother Toad at Kansas City Rep (Kansas City, MO), Oh My Sweet Land and Villa with The Play Company, Destiny of Desire at The Garden Theatre (Winter Garden, FL), Paris! and Nutcracker Rouge! with COMPANY XIV at Irondale Theatre, Men On Boats and The Wild Party with The Dramatic Association at Yale University, and Malja and Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods at Portland Stage (Portland, ME). markvanhare.com



DEB GAOUETTE (Props Designer)

Recent credits include: The Other Josh Cohen at the Westside Theater; Smokey Joe's Café at Stage 42; Desperate Measures at both The York Theatre and New World Stages, Switzerland at 59East59 Theater; Party Face at City Center; The Gentleman Caller for Abingdon Theatre; Unexpected Joy at The York Theater; On A Clear Day for Irish Repertory Theater; and Constellations, Switzerland, Shining City, Hounds of Baskervilles, Outside Mullingar, and Other Desert Cities for Hudson Stage Company.



Eisenberg/Beans Casting (Casting Director)

Eisenberg/Beans Casting is a fast-paced casting office for theatre, film, television, and new media. Highlights include...Broadway: Gettin’ The Band Back Together. Off-Broadway: Baghdaddy, Bedlam's The Crucible, Bedlam’s Pygmalion, The Anthem, and more. Regional/Other: Heartbreak Hotel (Broadway in Chicago), Folger Theatre, Bedlam’s Saint Joan/Hamlet on tour, Dallas Theater Center, New York Theatre Barn. Film: The Latin From Manhattan, Hands That Bind, Lapham Rising, Project Pay Day, The Miseducation of Bindu, A Case of Blue. TV: Timberwood, Mulligan. New Media: Limetown (Apple Podcasts). Daryl Eisenberg and Ally Beans are both members of Casting Society of America. www.ebcastingco.com. @EBCastingCo.



CAITLIN O’ROURKE (Production Stage Manager)

Caitlin is a stage and production manager based in Brooklyn. Her regional credits include: Native Son, Imogen Says Nothing (Yale Repertory Theatre); A Civil War Christmas (Connecticut Repertory Theatre); How We Got On, The Kite Runner, The Mystery of Irma Vep (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Buddy Cop 2 (Pavement Group); Assistance and A Permanent Image with LiveWire Chicago Theatre, where she was also Managing Director. Off-Broadway: The Merchant of Venice (Compagnia de’ Colombari); The Winning Side (Epic Theatre Ensemble). Caitlin is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and an alumna of the University of Michigan.



David Kenner(Assistant stage Manager/Founding Company Member)

Acting: New York Theater: The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park; Othello, (directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson),Twelfth Night (directed by Dan Sullivan), Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, An Enemy of the People (Wheelhouse Theater Company). Recent Regional: Hamlet, Red, Outside Mullingar, Shakespeare in Love (Capital Rep), Caravan Man, Help Yourself (Williamstown Theater Festival), A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theater), Sweat (People’s Light). BFA from Sam Houston State University. MFA from NYU Graduate Acting. Co-founder of Wheelhouse Theater Company.



MATT HARRINGTON (Wheelhouse Founding Company Member)

Matt Harrington is a founding member of Wheelhouse Theater, and is currently starring in The Play That Goes Wrong at New World Stages. Past Wheelhouse Productions: Julius Caesar, In the Room. Broadway: Mr. Wormwood in Matilda the Musical (Shubert Theatre), Twelfth Night and Richard III (Shakespeare's Globe), Harvey (Roundabout Theatre Company). Regional: Cape Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival, TheatreWorks Palo Alto, Portland Stage, Weston Playhouse, Syracuse Stage. TV: "The Path," "Boardwalk Empire," "Bored to Death," "The Good Wife," "Gravity." Training: MFA, NYU's Graduate Acting Program.



CHRIS BOLAN (Wheelhouse Company Member)

Chris has had a career as an actor spanning everything from Broadway National Tours and Off-Broadway to many top regional theater companies in both the United States and Canada, while also working in film and television. In 2016 Chris was Artistic Director for the critically acclaimed European Premiere production of Oh Hell No! at the Alfo Puccini Theater in Milan, Italy and has directed legendary LGBTQ and Civil Rights Activist, David Mixner, in two World Premiere productions of 1969 and Who Fell Into The Outhouse both at the Florence Gould Theater in NYC. Chris recently finished directing his first full length documentary feature film, Extra Innings, with Blumhouse Productions and Beech Hill Films based on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League made famous by the Hollywood movie, A League of Their Own, that will premiere as a Netflix Original in 2019 and is a recipient of the 2014 Jerome Foundation Emerging Artists Award for directing. Mr. Bolan holds his MFA in acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, is an adjunct professor in the theater department at Western Connecticut State University and is member of The Board of Directors at LUMBERYARD Center for Film and Performing Arts.



DREW FRANCIS (Production Manager/ Technical Director)

Happy Birthday, Wanda June (Wheelhouse, The Duke on 42nd Street), Productions with The Directors Company: My Parsifal Conductor, The Violin, Terms of Endearment, A Better Place, Road To Damascus, Almost Home. Recent Other Productions: Sehnsucht at JACK Arts, Saved…..By Him at The New Ohio, La Traviata at Lincoln Center, Babette’s Feast at St. Clements, Cute Activist: Bushwick Starr, The Show Off, Rocket to the Moon, A Loss of Roses: Peccadillo Theater, Martin Luther On Trial, Screwtape Diaries at the Pearl, The Mark Riviera Story, Quiet Comfort, Discenchated, The World is Round, Our Planet. Theaters: Playwright’s Horizon, Theatre Row, BAM, The Duke, The Mint, The Gene Frankel, The Davenport. Adjunct Professor; Pace University; Events Manager NYU.



Broadway Crew (Promotions)

Broadway Crew is a boutique marketing and promotional street team serving Broadway, Off-Broadway, and beyond. Our mission is to elevate the business of in-person promotions. We build audience-focused marketing campaigns from the ground up using our unique street-level perspective. Find out more at www.BroadwayCrew.com and @broadwaycrew on Instagram.



VISCERAL ENTERTAINMENT (Executive Producer, General Management & Marketing)

A production company formed by Michael Chase Gosselin and Tim Sulka. Visceral is proud to be continuing their collaboration with Wheelhouse Theater after General Managing and Executive Producing their hit revival of Kurt Vonnegut’s Happy Birthday, Wanda June (NY Times Critic’s Pick) last year. Visceral produced Midnight at The Never Get at NYMF is 2016, and has since shepherded it through smash hit runs in Provincetown and at the York Theater (NY Times Critic’s Pick.) Midnight is slated to open off-Broadway in 2020, and is the receipient of the 2018 Show of the Year MAC Award, 2016 Best Musical Bistro Award, and has been nominated for 3 Lortel Awards, 2 Drama Desk Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award and an Off-Broadway Allliance Award. Additional Management & Executive Producing highlights include Money Talks, Endangered! The Musical, The Wrong Box, and The First Annual Trump Family Special (Starring Gina Gershon.) NYMF highlights include Emojiland (2018), Ludo’s Broken Bride (2016) and Pope! (2015). Upcoming Projects: Perfectly Victorian, TILL: A Musical, Alive! The Zombie Musical, LadyShip, Emergency the Musical, Confidence (And The Speech), The Giant Hoax, a new holiday musical entitled The Most Miserable Christmas Tree, a stage adaptation of the novel The Black Ledger, and musical stage projects with NY Times Bestselling Novelist, Jonathan Lethem, as well as the viral musical group, Too Many Zooz. For more information on Visceral’s work and services, visit visceral-entertainment.com.



WHEELHOUSE THEATER COMPANY (Producer)

In 2009, NYU Grad Acting classmates Jeffrey Wise, Matt Harrington and David Kenner joined together to create and produce Back, loosely based on Shaw’s Back to Methuselah. This production team would later be joined by Michael Schantz to form the genesis of Wheelhouse Theater Company, a process-oriented company driven by a collective curiosity. As artist citizens, Wheelhouse aims to respond to the world through classic, new and devised plays in order to distill socially relevant issues to their essence. From its official inception in February 2016, Wheelhouse, under Artistic Director Jeffrey Wise, has produced Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet and the World Premiere of Lawrence Dial’s In the Room (in collaboration with the Slant Theatre Project), which the NY Times hailed as “solidly smart… thoroughly transporting.” In 2017, Wheelhouse again produced the World Premiere of Dial’s DannyKrisDonnaVeronica followed by Ibsen’s masterpiece An Enemy of the People, both to critical acclaim. In 2018, Wheelhouse produced the hit Lortel nominated revival of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1970 play, Happy Birthday, Wanda June, which transferred from the Gene Frankel to the Duke on 42nd Street, after receiving a NY Times Critic’s Pick. For more information about Wheelhouse, visit us at wheelhousetheater.org.

