Meet the Creative Team
August Schulenburg (Playwright)
August is thrilled to be working with Adaptive and this great team. His plays include Carrin Beginning, Kidding Jane, Rue,Riding the Bull, Good Hope,Other Bodies, Honey Fist, Dark Matter, Jacob’s House, DEINDE, Dream Walker, Denny and Lila, Encryption, Jane the Plain and The Lesser Seductions of History. His plays have been produced and developed at the Lark Play Development Center, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Chelsea Playhouse, Theater for the New City, Portland Stage Company, Dayton Playhouse, Colonial Players, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Contemporary Stage Company, Abingdon Theater Company, Gideon Productions, New Amerikan Theatre, Penobscot Theatre, Impetuous Theater Group, Decades Out, Soundtrack Series, Reverie Productions, Wolf 359, Blue Box Productions, Piper McKenzie, Boomerang Theatre Company, Adaptive Arts Theater Company, Hall High School, Nosedive Productions, MTWorks, Purple Repertory, Valley Repertory Company, The Brick Theater, CAPS LOCK Theatre, Chameleon Theatre Circle, Retro Productions, Elephant Run District, TheatreLAB and Flux Theatre Ensemble, where he is the Artistic Director. He is a 2013-14 Lark Playwrights Workshop Fellow and a member of the Propulsion Lab for Mission to (dit)Mars. His work has also been published in the New York Theater Review, Stage and Screen, Indie Theater Now, Midway Journal, NoPassport Press and in two issues of Carrier Pigeon. He also writes for film and television with MozzleStead Productions.
August is thrilled to be working with Adaptive and this great team. His plays include Carrin Beginning, Kidding Jane, Rue,Riding the Bull, Good Hope,Other Bodies, Honey Fist, Dark Matter, Jacob’s House, DEINDE, Dream Walker, Denny and Lila, Encryption, Jane the Plain and The Lesser Seductions of History. His plays have been produced and developed at the Lark Play Development Center, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Chelsea Playhouse, Theater for the New City, Portland Stage Company, Dayton Playhouse, Colonial Players, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Contemporary Stage Company, Abingdon Theater Company, Gideon Productions, New Amerikan Theatre, Penobscot Theatre, Impetuous Theater Group, Decades Out, Soundtrack Series, Reverie Productions, Wolf 359, Blue Box Productions, Piper McKenzie, Boomerang Theatre Company, Adaptive Arts Theater Company, Hall High School, Nosedive Productions, MTWorks, Purple Repertory, Valley Repertory Company, The Brick Theater, CAPS LOCK Theatre, Chameleon Theatre Circle, Retro Productions, Elephant Run District, TheatreLAB and Flux Theatre Ensemble, where he is the Artistic Director. He is a 2013-14 Lark Playwrights Workshop Fellow and a member of the Propulsion Lab for Mission to (dit)Mars. His work has also been published in the New York Theater Review, Stage and Screen, Indie Theater Now, Midway Journal, NoPassport Press and in two issues of Carrier Pigeon. He also writes for film and television with MozzleStead Productions.
Marielle Duke (Director)
As a director, Marielle has directed with Boomerang Theatre Company, Flux Theatre Ensemble, Manhattan Theater Source, World Theater Day, and Metropolitan Playhouse, among others. She is the Artistic Director of Adaptive Arts Theater Company, a non-profit theater company that uses both an educational and production-based model to make theater more accessible to individuals with Autism. With Adaptive, she’s directed Mensch’s All Hail Hurricane Gordo, Brecht’s Good Woman of Setzuan, Barrie’s Alice Sit by the Fire, and multiple workshops for their “Autism Initiative” program. As an educator, she has spent the last six years in NY teaching everything from Pre-K to Graduate school. Along with her educational journeys, she’s developed and implemented curriculum for theater residencies across the five boroughs in both public and private schools for neurotypical and special needs children. She has spoken across the country on ways to create accessible theater performance for populations with disabilities. BA in Theater (Directing) and Creative Writing from Drew University and Masters in Educational Theatre from City College. Upcoming productions include a devised production of Faust with August Schulenburg (Adaptive) and Lauren Ferebee’s Ivisibility, or Tiny Rockets as an educational outreach partnership with the YMCA/HA of Inwood/Washington Heights.
As a director, Marielle has directed with Boomerang Theatre Company, Flux Theatre Ensemble, Manhattan Theater Source, World Theater Day, and Metropolitan Playhouse, among others. She is the Artistic Director of Adaptive Arts Theater Company, a non-profit theater company that uses both an educational and production-based model to make theater more accessible to individuals with Autism. With Adaptive, she’s directed Mensch’s All Hail Hurricane Gordo, Brecht’s Good Woman of Setzuan, Barrie’s Alice Sit by the Fire, and multiple workshops for their “Autism Initiative” program. As an educator, she has spent the last six years in NY teaching everything from Pre-K to Graduate school. Along with her educational journeys, she’s developed and implemented curriculum for theater residencies across the five boroughs in both public and private schools for neurotypical and special needs children. She has spoken across the country on ways to create accessible theater performance for populations with disabilities. BA in Theater (Directing) and Creative Writing from Drew University and Masters in Educational Theatre from City College. Upcoming productions include a devised production of Faust with August Schulenburg (Adaptive) and Lauren Ferebee’s Ivisibility, or Tiny Rockets as an educational outreach partnership with the YMCA/HA of Inwood/Washington Heights.
Meet Our Cast
Gabby Sherba has worked in theatre and film as an actor and composer since she was an adolescent. She has collaborated with thespians and musicians in New England and New York who inspire the nonsense out of her. It turns out she also does devised theatre and performs with a few Brooklyn-based bands. She still hopes to grow up to be a sitar someday.
MATTHEW TRUMBULL (Faust): Recent projects: THE BLOOD BROTHERS PRESENT...BEDLAM NIGHTMARES: STRAPPED IN (Blood Brothers); staged reading of Eric John Meyer's DOWN FROM BUFFALO (Actors Studio); feature film wrapped in January, DEAD RESIDENTS (Pandora Machine Films. Indie Theater: THE ZEBRA SHIRT OF LONELY CHILDREN, writer/performer (2013 Minnesota Fringe Festival-Audience Pick. 2012 FringeNYC, Fringe Encores, and FringeNYC Award, Overall Excellence-Solo Performance), WHY WE LEFT BROOKLYN (Theater Accident). METAPHOR; GLEE CLUB; EFFIE JEAN IN TAHITI; PLAY RUSSIA; WHEN IS A CLOCK; THE WHITE SWALLOW; WHAT TO DO TO A GIRL; THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE (Blue Coyote Theater Group). AS YOU LIKE IT (Boomerang Theatre Company). TRAYF (Brick Theater). DEINDE (Flux Theatre Ensemble). VIRAL (2009 FringeNYC, Gideon Productions). ACTION PHILOSOPHERS! (Impetuous Theater Group). NOWADAYS; INHERITORS; THE SCARECROW; METAMORA; THE SHOW-OFF (Metropolitan Playhouse). INFECTIOUS OPPORTUNITY (Nosedive Productions). A DAY IN THE DEATH OF JOE EGG, DEAR RUTH, THE DESK SET (Retro Productions). Tour: CHARLOTTE'S WEB (Theatreworks/USA). "Soundtrack Series", May 2011. Nytheatre.com People of the Year, 2009.
Nat Cassidy is a multi-award-winning playwright/actor/musician whose works include Any Day Now ("Genius ... a great play for a myriad of reasons," The Fab Marquee), The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots (Winner, NY Innovative Theatre Award for Full-Length Script), The Eternal Husband ("Amazing, unforgettable, absolutely electrifying. Generates heat that is pure brilliance," Joe Franklin, Bloomberg Radio), Songs of Love: A Theatrical Mixtape (“This restored my faith in theatre,” The Happiest Medium), I Am Providence ("The most delightful thing we have ever seen anyone pull off on a stage, anywhere, ever!" Tor; Winner, NYIT Solo Performance), and Old Familiar Faces ("So poetic, so full of insight and understanding ... so much brilliance on stage," Usher Nonsense). Last year, Nat was commissioned by The Kennedy Center/Washington National Opera to write the libretto for a new opera with composer Scott Perkins, which The Washington Times called “brilliant” and “remarkable.” Nat was named one of nytheatre's 2011 People of the Year for his contribution to the NY independent theatre scene. For music and more: www.natcassidy.com
Emily Hartford is a co-founder and Director of Development of the New York Innovative Theatre Award-winning company Rabbit Hole Ensemble (est. 2005). She is an actor, a puppeteer, puppet designer, producer, grant writer, and aspiring circus performer. Off Broadway: The Contrast (Mirror Repertory Company). Recent indie theatre: Dark Water (MTWorks), As We Like It (Messenger Theatre Company), The Alfred Hitchcock Festival (Radiotheatre), Genesis (Circus Warehouse), Blood Brothers Present: Raw Feed (Nosedive), Leakey's Ladies (Drama of Works). With Rabbit Hole Ensemble: The Tale of Frankenstein's Daughter, Candide Americana, Big Thick Rod, Shadow of Himself, The Night of Nosferatu (NY Innovative Theatre Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble). www.emilyhartford.com; www.rabbitholeensemble.com
Matilde Keizer was born and raised in Rome where she began her performing career begging to play the violin. After many years of this she found herself seeking another outlet for performance and began Acting, after much push and pull she ended up leaving the homeland to study Acting at NYU where she is now a Senior in the New Studio on Broadway also minoring in Applied Theatre. Most recently she has been seen in productions of Chuck Mee's Summertime, Lanford Wilson's The Hot L Baltimore Stephen Sondheim's Company and is beginning rehearsals for As you Like it with Ian Belknap, diretcor of The Acting Company. In her work as a teaching artist she has worked with Shenker kids in Rome, Dance Theatre Etc, in Red Hook Brooklyn, and most recently with Young Players Theatre. She is exceptionally excited to begin working with Adaptive and such incredible people!
Rachael Hip-Flores With Flux: Sans Merci, Hearts Like Fists, DEINDE, FoodSoul: Goldsboro, ForePlay: New World Iliads, several Have Anothers. Selected Theater: Cymbeline (Imogen, Judith Shakespeare Co), Eschaton Cabaret, Trying (World Premiere), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe), readings at the Public and Cherry Lane Theaters, and with Harvey Fierstein, Kristen Johnston, Lee Tergesen, Reed Birney, and Lynn Nottage. Selected Webseries: Anyone But Me (Winner, Best Lead Actress -IAWTV, Streamy, Indie Soap Awards), Good People in Love (Best Lead Actress in a Drama, Indie Intertube Award Nominee), Upcoming: Producing Juliet Selected Film/TV: Gossip Girl, Lucrecia (HBO New York Latino Film Festival, San Diego Latino Film Festival) irecting: The Little Dog Laughed (St Francis College). Assistant Directed Eva, the Chaste (Theater Row), Beyond the Pale (1st Irish Theater Festival), Rape of the Lock (Duo Theater)Training: BFA, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University
REBECCA GRAY DAVIS: Rebecca has previously been seen at The Brick in MASS, THE BLOOD BROTHERS PRESENT, IN THE GREAT EXPANSE OF SPACE THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE BUT MORE, MORE, MORE, and THIS PLAY HAS NO TITLE (YET). Other New York credits include WHY WE LEFT BROOKLYN with Theater Accident, DAUGHTERS OF LOT with Brain Melt Consortium (Edinburgh Fringe & Frigid Festival), FINDING MOTHER with Manhattan Repertory Theatre, EATEN VOICES at Dixon Place, SMACKER AND THE HIGHWAY with Planet Connections, JAWS! THE MUSICAL and LOCAL with MidnightBuffet, DESTINATION with Manhattan Theatre Source, WAKE with Aisling Arts, NEITHER HEAVEN NOR EARTH with Poliglot Theater, and JULIUS CAESAR with Bushwick Shakespeare Repertory. Events and staged readings include work with Fresh Ground Pepper, Metropolitan Playhouse, Boomerang Theatre Company, CollaborationTown, The Secret Theatre, Adaptive Arts, and Playsmiths. Regionally, Rebecca has been seen in OUR TOWN, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, and THE TEMPEST at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. www.RebeccaGrayDavis.com