Chiori Miyagawa playwright
Chiori Miyagawa is a NYC-based playwright. This Lingering Life received a world premiere production in San Francisco at Z Space, produced and directed by Jubilith Moore from Theatre of Yugen. Chiori’s other plays include I Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour (at Ohio Theater, produced by Voice & Vison Theater); Antigone Project (Women’s Project), America Dreaming (Vineyard Theater), Nothing Forever and Yesterday’s Window (New York Theatre Workshop) and others. She is happy to return to HERE with Cake Productions. Her last project at HERE was Dream Acts in 2012. She has been an artistic associate at New York Theater Workshop where she designed and managed the first phase of the fellowship program for playwrights of color; and an associate artist of JoAnne Akalaitis at the Public Theater. She is a recipient of many fellowships including a New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, a McKnight Playwriting Fellowship, a Van Lier Playwriting Fellowship, an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, a Rockefeller Bellagio Residency Fellowship in Italy, a MAP Fund from Creative Capital, and a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship at Harvard University. Twelve of her plays are collected in two books: Thousand Years Waiting and Other Plays (Seagull Books) and America Dreaming and Other Plays (NoPassport Press). She is a Usual Suspect of New York Theatre Workshop, an alumnus of New Dramatists (2006-2013), a playwright member of Lark Play Development Center, and a faculty member in Theater and Performance program at Bard College.
Cat Miller director
Cat Miller is a NY-based director and adapter. She most recently assistant directed Of Mice and Men on Broadway with director Anna D. Shapiro. Recent directing credits include: The Exonerated (Next Theater, Evanston, IL in a co-production with Northwestern University and the Center for Wrongful Conviction), A Brief History of America by Dipika Guha (Drama League DirectorFest, NYC), Caroline Prugh’s Betwixt Them Made (Columbia University’s New Works Now Festival, NYC), Janine Nabors’ Letters to Kurt (Keen Company’s Keen Teens, NYC), a reading of Stephen Belber’s The Power of Duff (LAByrinth Theater, NYC), and All the Happy People by Greg Hardigan (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). She was the also the assistant director for Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Motherf**ker With the Hat on Broadway (Anna D. Shapiro, director), and has assistant directed at Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Steppenwolf, and Northlight Theater, among others. Awards/honors: Drama League Fall Directing Fellow 2012; Finalist for The Claire Rosen & Samuel Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists 2012; Directing Resident at Playwrights Horizons; recipient of an SDCF Observership; member of Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. MFA: Northwestern University, BA: Oberlin College. catmillerdirector.com
Ronald Cohen* performer
Ronald Cohen is thrilled to revisit Chiori Miyagawa’s This Lingering Life, after appearing in this haunting play in a New Dramatists presentation. He also appeared in Miyagawa’s Woman Killer at Here Arts Center. Among other NY theatre credits: Artist Descending a Staircase, Henry IV Part One (Boomerang Theatre Company); The Recruiting Officer (NY Classical Theatre); Twelfth Night (Kings County Shakespeare); Messiah (Workshop Theatre Company). Regional work ranges from Cincinnati Playhouse to Orlando Shakespeare and Lake Lucille Chekhov Project.
Meg MacCary* performer
Meg MacCary most recently covered Karen and Beth in Dinner With Friends at The Roundabout and had the great pleasure of playing both roles. She won an OBIE for her performance in What Then by Rinne Groff, directed by Hal Brooks. Recent New York includes: I Came To See You On Tuesday (La Mama), The (*) Inn (Abrons Art Center), Barking Girl (4th Street Theatre), Prison Light (HERE), The Tempest (Target Margin), The Country Wife (Odyssey Productions), Thank You Kind Spirit (Target Margin), Gentleman Caller (Clubbed Thumb), No More Pretending (Inverse). Regionally: Mrs. Fitch in Mr. and Mrs. Fitch for Amphibian Stage in Fort Worth, Guthrie, La Jolla Playhouse, Utah Shakespearean Festival. Film: The Giraffe that Knew Too Much (Bob Giraldi, Prod.). Meg co-founded Clubbed Thumb, and served as co-artistic director for 13 years and she serves on the Board of HERE where she has performed a dozen times over the past two decades.
Stephanie Weeks* performer
Stephanie Weeks has performed with Obie Award–winning companies Target Margin and Hoi Polloi. Some of her favorite roles include Salima in Ruined, Belle in A Christmas Carol, Charmian in Antony & Cleopatra and Shark in Oh My God I'm So Thirst(y), for which she received an Innovative Theater nomination.
She has training from the London Academy of Music and Drama, where she earned an MFA, and from the American Conservatory Theater.
stephaniejweeks.com
She has training from the London Academy of Music and Drama, where she earned an MFA, and from the American Conservatory Theater.
stephaniejweeks.com
Enormvs Muñoz performer
Enormvs is in this production because he was promised CAKE. HE comes to us fresh off of an eight-year stint in San Francisco, where he worked with Theatreworks Silicon Valley, San Francisco Playhouse, Theatre Rhinoceros, Cuttingball, The New Conservatory Theatre Center, Theatre of Yugen (who cast him in the premiere of This Lingering Life earlier this year), San Francisco Ballet, and several other companies. In addition to acting he is an accomplished burlesque performer, circus performer, edutainer, visual artist, and a (hula) dancer.
Film: Beatific Vision.
Study: Brigham Young University, University Of Hawai'i at Mānoa.
Film: Beatific Vision.
Study: Brigham Young University, University Of Hawai'i at Mānoa.
Vanessa Kai* performer
Off-Broadway: The Architecture of Becoming (Women’s Project Theater). New York: What We Know (One Year Lease Theater Co.). Regional: Far East (Lucille Lortel Award—Outstanding Debut by the Connecticut Critics Circle) and An Infinite Ache (both by Stamford Theatre Works). Film: Death In Love (Sundance 2008), Smoke and Mirrors (DGA Award Asian-American East Coast, CINE Golden Eagle Award), Behind The Mirror. TV: Law & Order: SVU. vanessakai.com
William Franke* performer
New York theater: Coyote Katie Returns and The Abduction of Becky Morris (Route 66 Rodeo, founding member), Blizzard ’67 (Playlab NYC), 1001 (NYU Gallatin, guest artist), Betwixt Them Made (Columbia’s New Works Now Festival), The Soldier Dreams (Theatre East), plus work with such companies as Ensemble Studio Theatre, Lark Play Development Center, New Georges, and others. With Cake Productions: the inaugural production, Modern Dance for Beginners, as well as Psych and It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (as George Bailey in 2013 after directing Cake’s first production of it in 2012). Back in his native Minneapolis he has worked with The Jungle Theater, Park Square, and many others. He’s also worked with Out to Lunch Theater in Berlin, Germany. TV: All My Children, As The World Turns, Law & Order: SVU, The Electric Company, Z Rock, Living In Captivity (pilot). Film: Alone, After You’re Gone, If the Trees Could Talk, Smokers, and others. WilliamFranke.com
Luke Forbes* performer
Luke Forbes has been featured in several plays in New York, including: The Public Theater's TONY® Nominated Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino. He has been seen in other plays. He has also appeared in several cinematic endeavors, including shows on TV networks such as: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and in MTV’s forthcoming One Bad Choice... Luke has also been in a few films: the latest release in which you can see his face is Table Ten Films’ Clutter starring Carol Kane and Natasha Lyonne--Clutter can be viewed at your leisure utilizing a Video On-Demand service such as iTunes, or some such other service. It’s worth the view...not because of Luke’s face but, like this show, it is beautiful! Luke is a Brooklyn native. He still lives there. It’s nice.
Amir Darvish* performer
NY Theatre: I Came to Look for You on Tuesday, The (*) Inn, Taxi to Janna, Homeland, Shoes, 1001, Mona’s Dream, and the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway one-man show: Mercury. Regional Theatre: Single Lives (Boston Playwrights’), Suburbia (SpeakEasy Stage), Rafta, Rafta (Old Globe) and The Golden Dragon (Studio Theatre). 2010 NY Innovative Theatre Award recipient for Outstanding Featured Actor in Psych (with Cake Productions) & 2009 NY MITF Best Actor Nominee for Higher Education. Film & Television: Person of Interest, Bar Karma, Running Wilde, Love Magical, Month to Month, The Colbert Report, Charlie Wilson’s War, Law & Order, The Daily Show, Trooper, The Pink Panther, The Late Show with David Letterman, Spin City, Law & Order: SVU, The Unusuals, NYPD Blue, Damages, The Michael J. Fox Show, and The Blacklist, amongst others. AmirDarvish.com
Francesca Day performer
Francesca founded Cake Productions in 2009 with Marta Kuersten and has been an active member ever since. Credits with Cake include: Modern Dance for Beginners at the Cherry Lane Studio Theater, Psych at The Paradise Factory Theater, Speaking in Tongues at New York Theater Workshop’s 4th Street Theater, Swimming in the Shallows at the 52nd St Theater, In The Company of Jane Doe at New York Theater Workshop’s 4th Street Theater, and The Learned Ladies at Abingdon's June Havoc Theater. Other theater credits include: As You Like It at RSC’s Dell Theater in Stratford, The Rutgers Classical Showcase at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, Baby Boom at the George Street Playhouse Studio, Titus Andronicus at the Arclight Theater, The Sandman with Terra Firma Dance Theater. She is also a stand-up comedian performing throughout New York at venues such as Caroline's The Stand and Gotham Comedy Club, as well as throughout the US. She holds a BFA in Acting from Rutgers University, and a MA in Classical Acting from The Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
Marta Kuersten performer
Marta originally hails from Chicago, and is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied with ATC and RADA. She has appeared in New York with theatre companies such as Milk Can, Inverse, RoundTable, (re:)Directions, and others. Favorite productions include Comedy of Errors with Lake George Theatre Lab and Really Rosie with Atlantic Theater for Kids. In 2009 she co-founded Cake Productions with Francesca Day, with the goal of bringing high-quality, accessible theatre to off-off-Broadway venues. She went on to star in Cake’s first show, Modern Dance for Beginners, which had its New York premiere at the Cherry Lane Studio Theatre in July 2009. She made her directorial debut with Cake’s next full-length production, Psych in May 2010; other credits with Cake include Speaking in Tongues, Swimming in the Shallows, In the Company of Jane Doe, and The Learned Ladies. She has hosted monthly segments for the Epix channel on Dish Network, and provides voice overs for MLB.com and the Ice Network.
M. Florian Staab original music & sound designer
Recent credits include: The Library (The Public); Juno and the Paycock, The Freedom of the City and Beyond the Horizon (Irish Rep); Midsummer Night’s Dream (Classic Stage Company); The Rivals (Centerstage Baltimore); The Indifferent Lover (Greenwich Music Festival); The Old Boy (Keen Company); Out of Iceland (Culture Project); A Bright New Boise and And Miles To Go (Partial Comfort); The Suitcase Opera and Die Winterreise (Chicago Opera Vanguard); Piece Of My Heart and Tina Girlstar (New York Stage and Film); Blueprints of Relentless Nature and Darwin’s Wife (World Premiere in Japan). Staab is the resident sound designer at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. BA Oberlin College; MFA Krannert Center. www.florianstaab.com
Nastassia Jimenez lighting designer
Recent works include NYC: Voices of Swords (Soho Rep), A Dish for the Gods (Theatre Row), Rogerandtom (HERE Spaces), Ballet Academy East Spring Concert (Gerald Lynch Theatre), US: A Progressive Love Story (Theatre Row), Getting the Business (Theatre Row), Revisiting Wildfire (The Arclight Theatre), Chekhovek (The Arclight Theatre), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Harbor Lights Theatre Co.). Chicago: Venus, Where We’re Born, and Animals Out of Paper (Steppenwolf Theatre Co.). www.nmjlighting.com
Becky Bodurtha costume designer
Recent credits include The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go! (Theatre Ma-yi: Children's Theatre Company, MN and La Mama) A Little Night Music (New London Barn Playhouse, NH), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Vermont Shakespeare Company, VT), Olives and Blood (HERE), The Strangest (HERE Culturemart), Centaur Battle of San Jacinto, Labyrinth of Desire (Fordham University). MFA University of Iowa. If you would like to see more work, please visit www.beckybodurtha.com!
Kate Noll set designer
Kate has worked as a set designer for the New York Philharmonic, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Yale School of Drama, Yale Cabaret & Summer Cabaret (resident designer), Sundance Directors Labs, and HGTV. She is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Drama, and has a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. katenoll.squarespace.com
Courtney Ferrell stage manager
A freelance stage manager, Courtney has stage managed each of Cake Productions’ shows, and has branched out into projection design with Blogologues (blogologues.org). A proud public school educator, Courtney is the Math Department Head, Programmer and Technical Theatre Advisor at Bronx Theatre High School, where she has been teaching since 2006 and has directed four productions thus far. Courtney feels incredibly blessed to work with such charismatic and brilliant students each year.
Brooke Berry-Wolf* producer
A native of Colorado, Brooke earned her BA in Musical Theatre from the University of Northern Colorado and then trekked across the country to reside in Manhattan. She spent many years traveling the country and the world performing – favorite roles include: Sarah in Sarah, Plain and Tall, Irene in Crazy for You and The Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods. She joined the Cake Productions team during the premiere performance of Modern Dance for Beginners. She has since produced and performed in Cake’s mainstage productions of Psych, Speaking in Tongues and In the Company of Jane Doe, as well as the holiday production of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play and the Reading Series production of A Boy Called Newfoundland. She also received a 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Awards Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design for her work on Cake’s production of Psych. Brooke is infinitely proud of the accomplishments of Cake Productions and her amazing associates within the company’s first four years of operation. Proud Equity member.
* member, Actors' Equity Association.