Directing
OD
Original Production Team Bios
HANNAH BISEWSKI (Playwright) is a New York City-based playwright and holds an MFA from Columbia University. She has published an original script and its translation. Her last production in Austin was received with positive reviews and later purchased by the Blue Theatre of East Austin. Her most recent productions include Donkey Skin on Columbia Stages and Ebbie and Mol and the Apocalypse Song at the Thespis Festival.
CAMERON JEFTS (Viltz/Dramaturg) holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University. He grew up in Alaska. Cameron especially likes new work, theatre theory, and having fun. Before coming to Columbia, he learned other things at Sewanee: The University of the South and Michael Howard Studios. Dramaturgy at Columbia: Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers; Select Sections from the Heart: a word cycle; Far Away; Listless Lies; Red Snow; Saint Joan of the Slaughterhouses
SHIVA KALAISELVAN (Producer) holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. She left Malaysia and her previous career in Finance to pursue this crazy dream of being an Actress in New York City.
SARA SCIABBARRASI (Scenic Designer) received her BFA in Sculpture from Montclair State University in 2011. From a young age, she had always been attracted to crafting sets for plays and being behind the scenes. Since graduating, she has been a part of many shows, both plays and art exhibitions. She works most frequently with StrangeDog Theatre Company, a nomadic theatre company that finds homes around the NY/NJ area. This is her second production with Columbia.
YUKI NAKASE (Lighting Designer) is a lighting and scenic designer for stage, television and special events. Recent designs include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Schapiro Theatre), Black Milk (East 13th Street Theatre), The Liar (Fifth Floor Theatre), The Corsair (3LD Art & Technology Center), The Cherry Orchard (Atlas Theatre), The Golem of Havana (La MaMa Ellen Stewart Theatre) and The Pillowman (The T. Schreiber Studio). She holds an M.F.A. degree from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. http://yukinakase.com.
SEONYOUNG MA (Lighting Designer) holds an MFA in Lighting Design from New York University, Tisch. After graduating from the Seoul Institute of the Arts in Lighting Design, Seonyoung has worked as the Lighting Designer on many productions, including, musicals: Maria Maria and Nonsense; plays: La Dispute, Cho-yong"s Song and Closer; and operas L’Elisir d’Amor and Gianni Schicchi.
COLLEEN LACY (Stage Manager) Broadway: No Man’s Land. Off Broadway: A Picture of Autumn (The Mint Theatre). Columbia Stages: Sakharam Binder, Joan of Arc: Voices in the Fire, The Golem of Havana. Other NY credits: Stranded on Motor Parkway (NYCFringe), More (Ego Actus), Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (AfterWork Theater Project). Colleen holds an MFA degree in Stage Management from Columbia University.
JENNY AINSWORTH (Stage Manager) Off-Broadway: Inner Voices 3 (Premieres NYC). Columbia University: Everybody's Legs, The Physicists, The Cherry Orchard, The Poor of New York, Colossus, Cinderella, Antigone/Progeny, Marian Jean. Favourite New York: Just Right, Just Now (Lesser America/Theater for the New City), The Hours are Feminine (Lark), Numbers/Dates (Rhymes with Opera), Safe (Ego Actus), Evelyn (Nellie Tinder), Righteous Money (Wolf 359), Aliens with Extraordinary Skills (Ego Actus), Exile (Lark), Jack Perry is Alive (and Dating) (NYMF). Education: Columbia MFA Theatre Arts
TORREY WIGFIELD (Fight Consultant) studied for three years with Erik Fredricksen, co-founder of the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and also in an assistantship capacity with teacher/director Malcolm Tulip and master movement teacher Jerry Schwiebert. On stage, his tough guy roles include Orestes in Butoh Electra with the Ume Group in Brooklyn, Tybalt with Michigan Shakespeare Festival Tour, and the Referee in Trafford Tanzi, a musical comedy set in a WWE stylewrestling ring.
EVA MLINAR (Graphic Design) has a degree in Art History, and she is currently a graduate student of Visual Communication at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She works in different media, such as painting, illustration and graphic design. In her spare time she loves doing collages, but she seldom knows what will emerge on paper.
DINO PETRERA (Braxton Crandall) New York: Ink (Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival); Mirror, Mirror (Tunnel Theatre Company). London: Henry VIII and Pygmalion (Live Literature Company). TV/Serial: 'Broad City' (Comedy Central), 'The Working Dead.' BFA: Niagara University. LSVPetrera@gmail.com
MARY LINEHAN (Caralee Crandall) is a company member of the Drilling Company, where she understudies the role of Betty for The Norwegians and a member of The Actor’s Project NYC. Her most recent credits include the October showcases with TAPNYC (featured singer) and playing various roles in the Drilling Company’s production of Cymbeline as part of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot.
EMILY STECK (Georgia Crandall/ Elsie Bagwell) A graduate of Wesleyan University (Phi Beta Kappa; High Honors in Theater, BA), Emily is enjoying being back in New York City and playing a loud-mouthed woman…again.
HARDY PINNELL (Walker Crandall/Joe Christmas) is a graduate from Columbia University’s Graduate Acting Program. Hardy is originally from Santa Fe, NM but has worked across the country at different theaters, including The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The Guthrie Theatre.
MELANIE SCHEINER (Eve) This is her first role since graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama.
FELIX JONES (Adam) is making his theatrical debut in New York as Ben in Long Time Comin. This past summer, he also appeared in a production of Our Boys (by Jonathan Lewis) at the La Jolla Playhouse Seuss Space. After ditching chemical engineering at UCLA before school ever started, Felix studied last year with the conservatory at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York. This year, he enrolled at New York University, where he is studying acting at the Meisner Studio.
AARON MORTON (Bobcat) was born and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey and is currently a third year MFA Acting student at Columbia University. IT Security Consultant turned actor.
MICHAEL BRAHCE (Horace Gilmer) Past credits: Roundheads and Peakheads (MoonRover); A Christmas Carol (Berkshire Theatre Group); The Decay of Cities: Orchard-less and The Good Person of Szechwan (Enthuse Theater); Spoon River Anthology and The Cherry Orchard (Columbia Stages). As a member of Kickwheel Ensemble Theater, Michael has appeared in the K.E.T. productions of Flark! and DARK: An End of the World Play with Music and an Exercise Bike.
ELENA V. LEVENSON (Squirrel Tooth Alice) can be seen holding forth in a bar and "generally causin' a ruckus" every Tuesday night as the trivia host for Break Bar and Billiards in Astoria (Tuesdays at 8:30 pm, off the Broadway stop on the N/Q). Previously at Schapiro: Grekova in Platonov (dir. Sina Heiss). Around Columbia: scenework with directors Misha Chowdhry, Benita de Wit, and Eric Powell Holm; readings for playwrights Ashley Minihan and Dianne Nora. Training: BFA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
CRYSTAL LEE (Babette) Hey ain't life.. O-nly resisting your; D-emons?
JARVIS DEWAYNE GRIGGS (Olivier) is a native of Dallas, Texas. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from Prairie View A&M University. He is currently in his third year attending Columbia University Graduate Acting program. He developed a passion for the arts at a young age and that passion has propelled him through life in music, dance, and theatre. He has been dancing for two years and has been a member of Classic Dance Ensemble dance company in Houston, Texas. He plans to continue to growing and learning more in the arts so that he may inspire others in the craft.
JOVAN DAVIS (Viltz) is thrilled to be a part of "OD". This is in fact one of his dream roles and he is happy to have done it with such a talented team. He would like to thank his cast and crew for all of their dedication and love throughout the process. And of course his family and friends for their relentless support, because without it, where would he be?
BRENDAN SOKLER (Eli Barnwell) is a monkey who sometimes acts...when he is not acting he likes to eat bananas and swing from trees. He occasionally works as a butler making martinis and wears half a tuxedo...because monkey butlers by law cannot wear full tuxedos. He lives in Harlem with his monkey husband Bryan Lewis...Bryan is also a monkey.
BRYAN LEWIS (Maddox Henry) has been in Mrs. Henderson’s Cat as Bobby, Daniel in Learning Russian in past productions at the Hangar Lab Company. Other productions include, Sordid Lives as Ty, Twelfth Night as Orsino, The Madness of George III as Papandiek, Hal in Proof, and Vince in Tape
ELISE WILLIAMS (Miss Ann) Some of her favorite roles include Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet, Masha in Three Sisters, and the Teenage Greek Chorus in How I Learned To Drive. She has a degree in theatre from the University of New Hampshire and is currently an Equity Membership Candidate. More can be found at her website, www.elisewilliams.info.