PROGRAM 7
There Be Monsters Here by Anthony P. Pennino
Still Life On Campus by Wayne L. Firestone
A Showing in Tribeca by Francis Bogan
there be monsters here
by Anthony Pennino
Synopsis: Christopher Marlowe – playwright, spy, adventurer – is a remarkable man in a remarkable age, but not even he can direct the wants of the human heart, including his own.
BIOS
Karl Knapp (Kit, co-director) is excited to be working with the Chain Theatre for the second time. A graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse of Acting here in NYC, he enjoys acting both in theater and film. Some previous credits include Corpus Christi (also at The Chain), Drones & Christ Detained all written and directed by Anthony P. Pennino. He also played John Proctor in The Crucible. He wishes to extend a Thank You to everyone at today’s performance.
Anthony P. Pennino (playwright, co-director) is excited to be returning to The Chain where he presented “Corpus Christi” as part of the Summer ’21 one-act festival. He is the author of numerous plays including Chokehold, Of Privilege and Property, and Christ Detained. He was twice awarded a fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts. A professor of literature, he also authored a monograph on the British theatre in the 1980s, which was published by Palgrave Macmillan UK. He holds an MFA from Columbia and a PhD from the University of London.
Michael Saunders (Tom, co-director) is thrilled to be back on the stage after an extended hiatus due to Covid. His looks forward to bringing to life another of Anthony Pennino’s works, with Tony’s last piece- The Nuclear Plays - being Michael’s New York debut back in 2018. Michael wants to send out a special thank you to his friends, family, and roommates for constantly supporting and pushing him, especially over these past two years.
Still life on Campus
By Wayne L. Firestone
Directed by Marcus Gualberto
Synopsis: Still Life on Campus, explores a hostile conversation that starts on campus between a Millennial art student and a statue of Christopher Columbus who can speak but cannot smell anything. The student visibly ages as the play proceeds into the distant future but the statue does not. The interaction reveals that more than one generation needs to assess visible and invisible scars from the past and revisit how to heal.
By Wayne L. Firestone
Directed by Marcus Gualberto
Starring
Robert Maisonett as Chris
Sara Minisquiero as Stacy
Anita Daswani as Voice
Marcus Gualberto (Director)
Born in Manila, Philippines, Marcus Gualberto is an advocate for equity, diversity, inclusion and intersectionality for theatre artists on and off stage. A Co-Founder of Regeneration Theatre, Marcus directed Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play The Shadow Box at The Gene Frankel Theatre. For the company, he has also directed William M. Hoffman’s As Is (Workshop Theater) and co-directed Tennessee Williams’ Small Craft Warnings (13th Street Rep). Other NY credits include: Wayne L. Firestone's Fallen Man (Players Theatre); Richard Curtis's Quiet Enjoyment (world premiere, Playroom Theater) and Dead Zone & Lunch with Your Editor (NY Lives Festival @ Producer’s Club); and the workshop production of ETHER: The Strange Afterlife of Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Susan Weinstein (IRT Theater). For four consecutive summer seasons with Actors Conservatory Ensemble / TreePeople, he produced and directed An Alfred Hitchcock Radio Play Double Feature (Rebecca and Shadow of a Doubt starring Academy Award nominee Robert Forster; Lifeboat and Strangers on a Train; The Thirty Nine Steps and Suspicion; Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Notorious featuring Hans Tester) at the S. Mark Taper Foundation Amphitheatre, Los Angeles. He currently serves as Deputy Director for the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) whose programming serves women, POCs and the LGBTQ+ community.
Sara Minisquero (Stacy)
Formerly a stage critter of multiple talents – acting, crooning, crafting, stage management, and production design – they put on every hat plus the community Contessa apron for over 15 years. Pandemic catastrophe halted a very promising start to Marshmallow Minxes Presents: a performance art production company founded with their counterpart Celia Foxglove and “Boodoir”: A monthly variety show. Since then Sara has ported their talents on the web, hosting at www.SongsofSaranalia.com . Many thanks to Marcus for the support and connections through the years. Miraculous 2021 projects included “Love the One You’re With” directed by Joan Kane, “The Big Dream” directed by Jay Michaels and will be appearing in the film “Modest Male Exposure” by Jed Ryan premiering soon.
Robert Maisonett (Chris)
In 2021, Robert Maisonett starred in Wayne L. Firestone's FALLEN MAN, part of The Rogue Theater Festival. He is honored to be working on Wayne once again. Other theatre credits include: THE SHADOW BOX (Regeneration Theatre), AS IS (Regeneration Theatre), SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY (Bank Street Theatre), YOUR FAITHFUL READER (Muriel Schulman Theater); SEX, LIES, ADAM & EVE (Nuyorican Poets Café); CLOUD 9 (Atrium Theater); SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW (Union Square Theater). Film and TV credits include: Alma Perdida; Miguel, Ma Belle; La Promesa; Collision; A Day at the Beach; Behind the Walls; Episode 50; Twin Primes; and “Taxi Brooklyn” (recurring).Robert was a 2017 BRIO Award recipient for Narrative Film & Video in Media Arts for his work in Latin Lives, a web series which he developed and created. SAG-AFTRA
Anita Daswani (Voice)
Anita Daswani is an NYC-based actress with performance experience ranging from Off-off-Broadway plays to TV and film. She made her Big Apple debut in 2018 with an originally written piece called The Suicide Journals, which shed light on suicide awareness and prevention. Since then she has starred in other original works such as Loving Japamala, and Flowers: A Thorny Romance Story. She also appeared in the well-renowned Moisés Kaufman play, The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. In 2020, Anita played Agnes in the Indie-theatre-hit, The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer and directed by Marcus Gualberto. After over a year of only being able to perform virtually, Anita returned to the stage in Wayne L. Firestone’s Fallen Man for the Rogue Theater Festival. She is ecstatic to extend her talents again and contribute to Wayne’s latest play Still life on Campus. Anita also continues to develop her own projects, one of the most recent being a short dramatic film entitled "The Missed"—which she wrote, produced and starred in last fall (2021). The short is currently in the post-production phase and being primed for festivals.
Wayne L. Firestone Bio (playwright)
Wayne is a non-profit leader, activist and provocateur. An alumnus of three Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive cohorts, his plays have appeared in festivals in NY, the United Kingdom, and on Zoom. A member of the Dramatists Guild of America, he founded Plays2Gather to celebrate diversity and educate about “the other,” and is a judge for the Jewish Plays Project. Among his recent plays selected for production: Rogue Theatre Festival “Rise Esperanto,” One-Act, December 2020; Urban Stages Acronym Plays, “JLS,” August 2020; Take Ten Festival-Between Us Productions at the Secret Theatre “Madame Magician,” April 2020 (postponed) and Queans Theatre Festival, UK (digital) August 2020; and Fifth Avenue Theatre Festival, NY (December 2020); Loud Voices Silent Streets Festival, UK (February 2021) Monologue, “Shana the She-Pirate;” “Fallen Man,” Rogue Theatre Festival- Players Theatre, NY July 2021; “Fallen Man,” Players Theatre Shorts Festival, NY June, 2021.
a showing in tribeca
Written and Directed by Francis Bogan
Synopsis:
While preparing for their most significant exhibition to date, the staff of a small lower Manhattan art gallery descends into chaos when the owner discovers a valuable painting was stolen... and suspects her employees.
ABOUT THE CAST
(in order of appearance)
Francis Bogan (Dave/Writer/Director): is a writer based in Brooklyn, NY. He also contributes headlines to ClickHole
Martha Epstein (Ruth/Associate director) is an actor born and raised in New York City. She played Miss Julie in the Antigravity Performance Project’s production of Miss Julie (in this very same theater!). She played Ruth in a workshop of A Showing in Tribeca in December and is thrilled to be back doing it again.
Haley Wong (Leah) is an actor born and raised in Hong Kong and a recent graduate of the Brown University department of theatre. Some favorite credits include The Wolves (#14), Antony + Cleopatra (Cleopatra), and Mary Gets Hers (Mary).
Kent Coleman (Arthur) is pleased to be performing in a live theatre space again. Prior credits include: SweatPant (Eris), Three Generations (The Sheen Center), Bergen (Broadway Bound Theatre Festival), and numerous productions at Connecticut Repertory Theatre. Shouts to deBaba; MiLohYa.
Karl Knapp (Ryan Hough) is excited to be working with the Chain Theatre for the second time. A graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Acting here in NYC, he enjoys acting both in theater and film. Some previous credits include Corpus Christi (also at The Chain), Drones, and Christ Detained, all written and directed by Anthony P. Pennino. He has also played John Proctor in The Crucible. He wishes to extend a thank you to everyone at today’s performance.
Thank you to Ellie Gravitte for her directorial help. Her guidance helped the cast better understand their characters' stories and intentions and made this a stronger, more entertaining, and funnier play.