PROGRAM 11

Hollywood by Joshua Jade

Starsong by Andrew Strano & Erika Ji

Dorm Death by Rosie Coursey

Dead Man Walking by Ali Keller

Joshua Jade Mitchell is a writer, director and actor originally from Buffalo. At 26 years old he is debuting as a playwright in this festival. He has a BA in Theatre from Queens College. His past Directing credit includes Tarrare performed at NYC Summer Festival. He last appeared as an actor in Toxic Norse-culinity at Chain Theatre. As a Native American artist he is motivated to create works featuring Native stories and artists. Hollywood is not one of those stories. Email: mitchelljoshua1299@gmail.com

David Armstrong - David is a performer originally from San Diego and currently living in New York City. His past credits include (as an actor) Flower Drum Song at La Jolla Playhouse, (as a writer) Behind the Ides at Cuesta PAC, and (as a comedian) the Peoples’ Improv Theater and the Upright Citizens Brigade. He is also an occasional arts educator, tap dancer, and TTRPG game master. He never knows what the last sentence of bios should be and so will say his favorite movie theater is the AMC Village 7.

Kayla Rivera (Production Manager) - Kayla is a writer and performer with an eye for organization. She was born and raised in New York City and is currently stream manager for multiple Twitch accounts in addition to her own streaming on weekends. Her free time is often spent building characters for Pathfinder 2e, and working on her novel. If she could only watch 3 movies for the rest of her life, she would choose Mamma Mia!, Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again!, and the entirety of One Piece.

Matt Mendoza has been designing props and sets for film and theater for the last 7 years. Based mainly in New York City, 25 year old Jordan takes his keen liking for abstract architecture and interior design and experiments through theater. He has worked on many variants of classic plays such as Modern Hamlet and Dystopian Future Midsummer Night's Dream. He loves end of millennium animation, and as such his favorite all time is The Iron Giant.

CREATIVE TEAM (in alphabetical order)

Erika Ji - Composer / Musical Director

Andrew Strano - Writer / Director / Designer

BIOS

Hannah Bailey

Hannah Bailey is an Australian/Filipino actor, musician, and poet. Credits include: ‘Skin’: Rattlestick Playwright’s Theatre, 'Remove the Serpent's Head': Ma-Yi Theatre Company, ‘Only Remains Remain’: MoMA PS1, ‘Sean, Women and Song’: The Irish Reparatory Theatre, ‘Welcome Home’: More and More Productions, ‘Central Standard’: BumbleeBee Entertainment. Hannah’s first collection of poetry ‘Drawing Blood (or On My Mother’s Toes)’ was published last year, and her original music can be found on all streaming platforms. @hannahbaileynery | hannahbaileynery.com

Alia Cuadros-Contreras

Alia Cuadros-Contreras (she/her) is a queer, Latine actor, singer, dancer, poet, and writer. Last spring, she graduated from NYU Tisch with a B.F.A. in Drama (New Studio on Broadway) and a minor in child/adolescent psychology. Some of her favorite roles at NYU Tisch include Hope in Urinetown (directed by Carlos Armesto) and Eva in Bad Hombres/Good Wives (directed by Francine Torres). She is passionate about new work and, since graduating, is excited to have been in various readings and workshops of new musicals including SCOUTS (Con Limon Productions) and Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead (Piper Theatre). Offstage, you can find her teaching theater classes in NYC public schools. She believes that arts education is vital and creates more compassionate, emotionally intelligent people.

Tuânminh A Đỗ

Tuânminh A Đỗ (he/him) is a Việt-Polish Immigrant Artist based in NYC. Shout out to the company! Sending love to my Misia. Buziaki dla rodzinki. Tôi đứng trên vai gia đình của tôi.

Jessie Field

Jessie Field (she/her) is an award-winning queer NYC playwright and director. She has written book and/or lyrics for numerous projects, including Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead (WINNER 2022 Musicals Now Competition, Semi-finalist for the O'Neill MT Conference, Semi-finalist for SDSU New Musicals Initiative), Madam President (workshopped at the Ferguson Center New Musicals Lab), Ren Faire (currently being developed with the Theatre Now Lab), La Maupin (WINNER 2018 International MUT Competition, WINNER Audience Favorite – 2017 Fresh Fruit Festival) and Rachel (2018 JDT Lab Selection, WINNER Outstanding Musical – 2015 Fresh Fruit Festival, 2013 Harold and Mimi Steinberg Prize for Best Original Play). Jessie has also written TYA straight play To The West, which was a finalist in the Growing Stage’s New Play Reading Festival and was presented as the school play at Randolph High School in 2018. Jessie served as the 2015-’16 Directing Apprentice at Capital Stage in Sacramento, California, and has directed numerous plays in the Boston and New York areas. Jessie is a co-creator (with James Salem) of the YouTube webseries Is This Art Now? A Musical in the Time of Corona and a co-founder (with Brandy Hoang Collier) of Root Beer Occasion Theatre Company. She earned her MFA at NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and her BA at Brandeis University.

Sara James

Sara (they/she) is over the moon joining these stars in this show (here's to hoping and also doubting that no one else made these space jokes in their bios). Sara has spent the last year running around Off and Off-Off Broadway stages in various workshops and readings helping new theatre find its footing, and her very own one act, Execution Play, will be going up this fall in EAT's New Works Series. You can find Sara on TikTok at @sarajamss where they have amassed far more of a following than they should rationally have because their videos are very silly. Massive thanks to Andrew in a big way. Grateful to be surrounded by stars, grateful for love, for perspective.

Erika Ji - Composer / Musical Director

Erika Ji is a cross-genre composer-storyteller who loves soaring melodies, dream worlds, and stories that challenge our preconceptions about what is true, good, right, or worth wanting. Her work has been featured Off-Broadway and around the world at Lincoln Center, the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, the Nadia Boulanger Institute, and the Public Theater via the Musical Theater Factory.

Current & recent projects include VISARE (concept album for an immersive circus experience, winner of the 2021 New Voices Project), Yoko's Husband's Killer's Japanese Wife, Gloria (new musical commissioned by The 5th Avenue Theatre), [untitled hat project] (tiny immersive experience at an eclectic hatmaker's studio, NYFA grant recipient), and music directing for new works like Scarlet Night (Virgin Voyages's inaugural ship-wide immersive experience). As a conductor, pianist, and vocalist, Erika has performed on national TV for CBS Sunday Morning and at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco.

Erika was a Tisch Fellow at the NYU TIsch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. The proud daughter of Chinese immigrants, Erika grew up in California, studied computer science and philosophy at Stanford University, organized the Viennese Ball in San Francisco, and built products at Dropbox before deciding to follow the music. https://www.erikaji.com/ 

Danielle Koenig

Danielle Koenig (they/she) is an award-winning writer, actor, and comedian based in NYC and Los Angeles. They are a graduate of NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and an alumnus of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television. When they are not writing and performing themselves, they work as a Producing Associate for Ma Yi Theatre Company. In Winter 2022 their 20-minute musical, Stuck, premiered Off-Off Broadway at the Chain Theatre, winning the Audience Choice Award. Recent performance credits include Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead at Piper Theater, Parx with Live Source Theatre Group, and Alice Formerly of Wonderland at the Whitefire Theatre in Los Angeles. Their original musical, Camp Song, debuted in Fall of 2019 on UCLA Theater’s Mainstage and was selected as a finalist for the New York Musical Festival. Their work has been featured at 54 Below in a series of shows dedicated to up & coming musical theater writers (and many other 54 Below one-offs) and, after winning Playdate Theatre Company’s Holiday Special, her song My Half Brother, The Saint was professionally recorded by TikTok star JJ Niemann for Spotify release and performed at the famous Duplex Theatre. They have extensive improv and sketch training, having written comedy videos that have been viewed over 1.5 million times on Youtube. For more information check out daniellekoenig.com.

Heather Sawyer

Heather Sawyer (she/her) is a proud Asian American Hoppa and dog mom to Winnifred Bagel. She graduated from Molloy College CAP21 with a BFA in Musical Theatre, and is so excited to be a part of this stellar show!  She was most recently seen as Charlotte Lucas in Charlotte Lucas is 27 and Not Dead! Off Broadway Credits include: James in James and the Giant Peach, Charles in Blood On My Mother’s Apron, Time in She Persisted the Musical, The Big One Oh, The Last Stop on Market Street, and Revelations the Musical. In her spare time, she loves watching Winnie do zoomies at the dog park, everything to do with thunderstorms, and collecting snow globes. Shout out to her family for the endless support, and to Jianzi and Rosie for being the best pals in the universe. All her love and admiration to the cast who shine more than any star, and the creative team whose radiant hearts are out of this world. And lastly, to you, our audience, because without you there would be no story. As always insist, resist, persist. @heathersawyer14 theadventuresofheathersawyer.com

Andrew Strano - Writer / Director / Designer

Andrew (they/them) is an Australian Fulbright scholar, lyricist, playwright, director and performer living and working in New York.

Their debut show, "Nailed It!" won the Greenroom Award for Best Original Songs, and toured globally to 5-star reviews including a sold out run at the Edinburgh fringe’s own Assembly Halls. Other full length works include: ‘SKIN’ (Off Broadway: Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Selection: Global Forms Theatre Festival), ’Voyagers’ (Winner: City Of Melbourne 2020 Arts Grant, Commissioned by Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre), ‘Jack Of Two Trades’ (Winner: Jeanne Pratt Artists in Residence Program), and the Songs of Mackenzie-Spencer & Strano (5 stars, the Australia Times).

Short works include: ‘STARSONG’ (Off-Broadway: Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Off-Off Broadway: Chain Theatre Festival 2022), Chicken/Egg (American Opera Project), ‘Anticipation’ (Off Broadway: Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), and ‘Space’ (Lincoln Centre’s ‘Future Broadway Songbook’).

Andrew is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts M.A. (Writing for Performance) and the NYU Tisch graduate musical theatre writing MFA program.Awards include: the 2019 Victorian Fulbright Scholarship, the 2020 Schubert foundation scholarship, the 2021 Peerce Scholarship, a major Mike Walsh Fellowship, a PPCA performer’s trust foundation grant, an American Australian Association Arts Grant, and the George Fairfax Memorial Award. Andrew has taught for New York University, Melbourne University, the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Stage School Australia, The Improv Conspiracy (Australia), ABC theatre (Scotland) and Base Jump theatre (New Zealand), in high schools as a singing teacher and drama teacher, and works as a corporate trainer specialising in negotiation techniques and teamwork. | andrewstrano.com | @andrewstrano on all platforms.

Vaughn Broderick (Caroline)-Vaughn is an NYC based actor, comedian and dog mom. She's an American Academy of Dramatic Arts alum, 2019-2020 AADA company member, resident acting company member of the Hamlet Isn't Dead theater company, and an AMC stubs member. Notable credits include New Jersey's McCarter Theater's "#Every28Hours", Douglas Carter Beane's "The Big Time", the screen to stage adaptation of Martin Davidson's "Looking for an Echo" and most recently Malcolm is Hamlet Isn't Dead's off broadway production of Macbeth. She would like to thank Rosie and Christina for a lovely process and as always thank her family, friends, enemies and everyone in between who helped get her to this moment in time. If you'd like to keep up on what's happening in Vaughn's world- or just an excuse to see pictures of her dog- visit vaughnbroderick.com

Christina Behnke (Helen)-Having trained at the Barrow Group, as well as under film director Brett Haley, Christina Behnke makes her New York stage debut in Dorm Death. Previous theatre roles include Philomena in Christopher Durang’s Sister Mary Ignatius Explains… More recently, she has acted in a number of short films and will appear in an upcoming episode of Discovery ID’s Evil Lives Here. A filmmaker, she produced the acclaimed independent feature Blood Conscious and worked as the assistant to Jim Mickle, creator of the Netflix hit series Sweet Tooth. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, writer/director Timothy Covell, with whom she is developing a number of projects under their production company, Ben Cove Entertainment.

Bios:

Ali Keller (writer)

Ali Keller is an award-winning producer, writer, and dramaturg. She is the Executive Producer and Founder of Ali Keller LLC, an Affiliate Dramaturg with Beehive Dramaturgy, a Producer with New York Picture Company, and Artistic Producer at Theatre ARTaud. She is passionate about producing dark and funny stories that need to be told on stage or on film. Select Musical Theater Credits: BLOOD/SWEAT/TEARS (The Workshop Theater Intensive, The Tank LIMEFEST, HARP Theatricals), …THE F*CK AM I DOING? (NYMF, The COW Community, Brighton Fringe Festival). Select Theater Credits: Standards (The Dramatists Guild), (un)conditional (Judson),  CHRISTEN THE PLACE (IRT Theater, Alt Eller Ingenting). Her full-length plays have been a Semi-Finalist for SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Mitten Lab Residencies, and ESPA Drills at Primary Stages. Select Film: TO HAVE & TO HOLD (City Artists Corps Grant Winner, Best Performances Romance & Relationship Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival Best Script Semifinalist), SEVEN FISHES (Best Short Film Katra Series World Webfest Mania, Social Impact Film Festival), BANDIT (Winner of LA Screenplay Fest) Select Theater & Film Production: LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR AND GRILL (Broadway), BEST WORST THING THAT EVER COULD HAVE HAPPENED (Netflix), SWEENEY TODD (Lincoln Center/Creative Arts Winner). @alikeller47 (instagram) www.alikellerplaywright.com  

Daniel Gaymon – Director

Daniel began training as a performer at the age of 9 in Columbia, SC. Since beginning his professional career, he has performed in musical theatre shows such as the Broadway revival of “Cats”, the national tour of “Hamilton” and back to Broadway in Disney’s “The Lion King.” His credits also include performing in Carrie Underwood’s “Something In the Water,” Sara Bareilles’s “Fire,” and the film “La La Land.” Since the summer of 2020, Daniel has gone on to direct and produce the LGBTQ+ web series “Neighbors” as well as produce, co-write, and lead act his own short film “Every Right” and direct a short play “Dead Man Walking” in NYC.

Ellis Charles Hoffmeister (Jack)

Ellis is an actor, dancer, comedian, director, and playwright. For the past four years, he has been studying at HB Studio in multiple disciplines, after receiving his BFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah, where he choreographed his own work alongside performing in pieces by Sidra Bell and Twyla Tharp among many others.  He is a stand-up comedian who currently performs in both New York and Los Angeles, and he spent many years working in the film industry in New York on commercials, short films, and feature films. He was most recently the Art Director for the short film Seven Fishes, which is currently winning awards on the film festival circuit, and his last directing venture was House on Fire by Ali Keller for the ‘Me and My Mask’ monologue competition. Ellis had a reading of his play, Family Games, in HB Studio's 2021 HB Playwrights Reading Series, and he recently performed at Theatre for the New City in their Lower East Side Festival of the Arts in May. Ellis performed in a reading of Ali Keller's Blood/Sweat/Tears through Harp Theatricals in June and is delighted to be performing in Dead Man Walking. He thanks the entire creative team for all of their brilliant work on this piece. @ellishoffmeister (Instagram)

Michael J Poyntz (Peter) 

Michael (he/they) is a classically trained actor, comedian, and producer based in New York City. Theater: The 56th Annual Rudolph…, Much Ado About Nothing (Producer’s Club), A Series of Inelastic Events (AHAP), Puppet Master (LaMaMa). Film/TV: Let The Right One In (Showtime), The Flight Attendant (HBO), HOMESICK (Alan Mendez), to have & to hold (Ali Keller LLC), UCB’s Innovation Inc. (Alpha), PTA (Workshop), among others. After graduating Muhlenberg College with a degree in Theater and Computer Science, Michael studied improv and sketch at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade theater with instructors like Shannon O’Neil, Billy Merritt, Toni Charlene, Joel Spence, and many more. He performs improv, sketch, and standup at venues like QED Astoria, West Broadway, and the Producer’s Club. When he’s not performing, he’s behind the camera at companies like Zipline Media, JARS Media, Image Media, and The Crop Shoppe. To mom, dad, meg, and mazy: ilyttmab. www.michaeljpoyntz.com @mikejpoyntz (Instagram)