Eclectic Evening of Shorts:  Boxers & Briefs

                                 Biographies

 

Lindsey Allison - Playwright, Keep the Change

Lindsey is an artist, poet, and writer who stumbled across a love of improv during the pandemic. She later found a virtual home in AND’s Improv to Script workshop, where she was strongly encouraged to ‘just finish something already’. 

 

Avery Bargar - Pianist, Singer - Musical Interlude

Avery Bargar is a NYC based actor, musician and writer. Recent credits include POKER FACE (Peacock) and TitanISH (Greater Boston Stage). You can often find him at the keys for the PIT NYC, Story Pirates, and more. His writing has been published in Points In Case, The Weekly Humorist and The Boston Globe. In Boston, Avery has worked with Commonwealth Shakespeare, Actors Shakespeare Project, Central Square Theater, and more. Avery's debut piano EP Hammers & Felt delivers vintage warmth on all major streaming platforms. He is represented by The Talent Express Management.

 

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Adam Burby - Shanz, Second Chance

Adam is a native New Yorker and actor. He has worked most recently with the Workshop Theater and Up Theater company, and he's excited to be collaborating on this latest project with AND.

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Amanda Cannon - Bess, Retirement from Public Service

Amanda Cannon is excited to be a part of this production! She holds a BA in Theatre from Southern Arkansas University. Credits include Medea (Chorus), The Laramie Project (Reggie Fluty, et al), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Page), Six Degrees of Separation (Tess), Lend Me a Tenor (Maria), and Abdication! (Sophia, Lady in Red). She is also a member of Wednesday Repertory Company, which focuses on creating and producing original work.

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​Daniel Carlton - Director, The Return of Ira

Recent Jabari Dreams Of Freedom and Hero The Boy From Troy (First Woman Productions, Director), Freedom Flight and Keep Marching (Mad River Theater Works, Director, Playwright, Lyricist), Freedom Riders (Mad River Theater Works, Director), and Finding North (RainART Productions, Actor, Collaborator with David Gonzalez). Other credits include March On (Blackberry Productions at Apollo Theater, National Black Theater Festival, Playwright, Director), Pigfoot Mary Says Goodbye to The Harlem Renaissance (Playwright), A Whistle In Mississippi (Co-Playwright with Michael Green),  Memories Of Self( Playwright) Hidden Inside (co-written with Nambi E Kelley, Keen Teens, Concord Publications), This Ability (Director, Co-Written with Nambi E Kelley, Chicago Children’s Theater), and So Journey to The Truth (Co-Written with Nambi E Kelley, Syracuse Stage/Regional Tour). JazzReach ( Narrator).

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Kim Chinh - Director, Retirement from Public Service

Kim hails from Houston, Texas where she played a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Alley Theatre. In NYC, she studied acting with Elizabeth Browning, who was a mentor in creating Kim’s solo show Reclaiming Vietnam. The show was performed at festivals, including the Edinburgh Fringe and institutions like Fordham University and the Queens Public Library. She currently studies Meisner Technique at The Maggie Flanigan Studio. Her directing credits include Hold Still, a new play by Susan Kuralt. She also directed a series of shorts at the George Bruce Library in Harlem in collaboration with playwright Cesi Davidson.

 

Cesi Davidson - Playwright, Retirement from Public Service

(Dramatist Guild) began to write in 2009. Since that time Cesi has written hundreds of plays demonstrating a broad range, fearless creativity, and cultural responsiveness. Her writing includes humorous explorations of personified objects to horrific stories of incest. Cesi is a producing playwright. She’s curator of Short Plays to Nourish the Mind & Soul, free public theatre at the George Bruce Library in New York City. Her published anthologies of plays include Articulation, Fricatives, Bilabials, Stop Plosive (Aqueduct Press) and America Acirema (Articulation NY LLC). She has enjoyed participating in 5 seasons of Eclectic Evening of Shorts. 

 

Emmanuel Elpenord* - Playwright/Puppeteer, The Choose Your Own Adventures of Turtleboy

                                        Actor;  Larry, The Morning After

Emmanuel Elpenord is a Brooklyn, NY born, Haitian-American actor, puppeteer, and voice-over artist. Puppeteer in El Niño (Metropolitan Opera); Eeyore, Rabbit, and Owl in the original cast of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh (Rockefeller Productions); 1st National, International, and Off-Broadway casts of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show (Rockefeller Productions); Puppeteer at Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater (9+ years). Member of Haiti Cultural Exchange's 2023 LakouNOU Artist Residency, Puppet Showplace Theater's 2023 Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers, and recipient of the Jim Henson Foundation's 2024 Family Grant. @sword.of.elpenord

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Choose Your Own Adventures of Turtle Boy!

With nearly a decade of string puppetry expertise, Emmanuel Elpenord presents the first marionette puppet he's ever built from scratch. Through carving and jointing of wood, 3D sculpting, and printing of resins, painstaking painting by hand, and by the grace and counsel of countless brilliant colleagues comes another installment of...the Choose Your Own Adventures of Turtle Boy! where the shy yet rowdy Turtle Boy leads you through an action movie of your own making. TMNT meets John Wick.

 

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Jennifer Fell Hayes - Playwright, Second Chance

Jennifer Fell Hayes is published by Samuel French, the Dramatic Publishing Company and Smith and Kraus.  Plays include Rosemary and Time (Paradise Factory Theatre,) and A Weekend in Filey (Workshop Theater Company, and Hen and Chickens, London,), Endurance, winner in True Voices playreading series, Nothing In Common, winner in the Samuel French Festival and also plays for museums such as the Liberty Science Center and the Tenement Museum. She has co-authored an award-winning book, Pioneer Journeys, Drama in Museum Education, and won poetry awards.She is a member of the Dramatists Guild. 

Sharon Geller - Singer/Improvisor, Musical Interlude

Saturday Night Live 4 times; TODAY Show as “Lucy” with Al Roker.  Old Jews Telling Jokes (national touring company); QVC spokeswoman. Numerous TV & radio spots; corporate comedy improv teambuilding. Sharon’s CLE,  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Arbitration – Great Communication Techniques for Lawyers’ is presented at legal conferences around the country. Her 1-woman show, Knock Knock…Jews There? A Talmudic Take on Comedy,  is performed at JCC’s & synagogues throughout the U.S.  MC Hammerstein – 1st musical improv house team at the P.I.T.  Teaching Improv for Lawyers (Drexel Law School); Improv for Scientists (University of PA); comedy improv (Walnut Street Theatre). www.sharongeller.com  Thank you to Larry who taught me everything I know about musical improv. 

 

Janice L. Goldberg+ - Director, Dating Violet

Janice L. Goldberg directs lots of new plays, (over 80 of them), served as Artistic Co-Director of ANDTheatre Company, and sometimes wins awards, like The Kennedy Center Gold Medallion Award. Recent: TOUCH, a Tank Core Production, Rose Colored Glass, co-written with Susan Bigelow, published by Samuel French, is in development as a feature film.  For AND she and Kristine Niven instigated these Eclectic Shorts (Boxers & Briefs), and Go Solo!.  Janice also directed a bunch of them.  Also with Kristine, Janice created AND’s Without a Net series, directing Gary Garrison & Roland Tec’s The Rubber Room, Niven’s Café Pen, Buried in Time andLights Out! Library in the Dark. (25 shows with 25 different casts)     www.JaniceLGoldberg.com

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​​Susan Kaessinger - Singer/Improvisor, Musical Interlude

Susan has been teaching, directing and performing improv and musical improv for over 25 years. In 2024, Susan wrote and performed the music for AND Theater’s production of GPS. Her musical group, Misery Loves Company, has performed at many venues in NYC and for events such as The Atlantic Antic, ARTmageddon, Newkirk Community Garden Concerts, ArtSlope, Park Slope Civic Sweep, etc. She is currently a faculty member at Flatbush Community Theater. Susan is thrilled to re-unite with her former musical improv teammates from MC Hammerstein, the P.I.T.’s first musical improv team in 2008.

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Ellen Ko - Robin Banks, Keep the Change

Ellen is an award winning New York City based actor and improviser. She gravitates towards comedy and is deeply influenced by physical theater such as clown, mask, and mime. Beyond performing, Ellen is the Artistic Director of Floor Five Theatre Company and an Adjunct Professor of Drama at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Visit EllenKo.com or @EllenKoGram on Instagram for more info!

 

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Katherine Lazarus - Playwright/Actor, Digital Footprint

Katherine Lazarus is an actor, writer, and producer originally from Levittown, NY. She received her BFA in acting from Adelphi University and has spent years in the NYC comedy world. Katherine has been a proud member of AND since 2015 and is so excited to be back with them this year in her 5th Ecectics festival. 

 

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Ken Levine - Playwright, The Morning After

Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/playwright/cartoonist/major

league baseball announcer. His plays have been performed around the world. Ken

was the Head Writer of MASH, Producer of Cheers, and has written over 200

episodes of TV for such shows as MASH, Cheers, Frasier, the Simpsons, and Wings. He

also has been the play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, and

San Diego Padres. Currently Ken is a contributing cartoonist to the New Yorker

Magazine.

 

Kathy Gail MacGowan+ - Director, Second Chance 

Kathy most recently directed the New York premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s play Emilie: La Marquise du Chatalet Defends Her Life Tonight at the Flea Theatre and Conoro McPherson’s The Night Alive at The Chain Theater.  She has directed hundreds of developmental readings for new work in New York, leading to the direction of 15 premieres by New York playwrights.  MacGowan regularly directs for the Stella Adler Conservatory/NYU Tisch.  She is a Drama League Directing Finalist and a member fo SDC, AEA, and holds an MFA from The New School for Drama.  This is the first time she has directed her daughter (on stage), and it was really fun.  kathygailmacgowan.com

 

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Lucy MacGowan - Martha, Second Chance

Lucy MacGowan is excited to be returning to the stage for A Second Chance. Lucy has been involved in music and theater productions from a young age, most recently performing in William Finn’s Elegies: A Song Cycle at her alma mater, Colorado College. Lucy otherwise spends her days teaching preschool and her nights at karaoke bars.

 

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Lucy McMichael* - Avery Man, Keep the Change

Lucy is pleased to be performing once again with AND.  New York City theater credits include: Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theater, Urban Stages, The Chain, Theater for the New City, the Workshop Theater Company, Abingdon Theatre Company, 600 Highwaymen.   Select Film/TV: “Dare” (Sundance), “Knife Point” (Sundance), “The Christening of William Trumbull,” Who She Was,” “What If I Were You,” “The Choice,” “Law & Order.”   Upcoming film: “Face to Face,” and “Waterfront.”  Lucy’s reel is available on IMDB and Actors Access.   AEA/SAG-AFTRA
 

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Kristine Niven* - Playwright/Actor, Dating Violet

                             Director, Keep the Change

Kristine Niven is an actor/improvisor, writer, director and producer living in New York City.  She co-founded ANDTheatre Company (aka Artistic New Directions) now in its 41st  year, and currently serves on its Board of Directors.  andtheatre.org  
 

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Katie North - Sophie, The Morning After

                       Violet, Dating Violet 

A former Princeton neuroscience nerd, Katie North enjoys telling dark comedies that explore the complex, funny, and weird motivations that drive people. As a co-producer, Katie just opened Operation Mincemeat on Broadway. Katie also directed, acted in, and produced the short film Bad Survivor, which just premiered at Slamdance. Previously, Katie wrote, produced, and acted in indie comedy pilots Nightfish and Events at Hemlock Manor, which both premiered at Dances with Films. As an actress, Katie played the lead in the Off-Broadway premiere of Eric Bogosian’s 1+1. She also starred in several indie features, including romcom Face the Music and sci-fi comedy Ghost Punchers.

 

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Scott Rogers - Ira, The Return of Ira

Scott has been studying at HB Studio, UCB, and Lucid Body Movement and was recently in “Listen, Won’t You” in the Chain One-Act Festival as well as a stage reading of A Kind Emptiness at HB Playwrights Theater. He is also excited to be in the upcoming Lysistrata also at the HB Playwrights Theater. Thank you to everyone for coming out to support this show!

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Michael T. Rose - Singer/Improvisor, Musical Interlude

Michael T. Rose has performed with multiple NYC improv companies, including Labrats, MC Hammerstein, Five-Car Pileup, KLAATU! & others. He is a past instructor at Island Theatre Workshop and the Improv Theater for Children, and an alumnus of the Second City NYC training center, the Magnet Theater, Gary Austin Workshop, Carol Fox Prescott and AND's Summer Improv Intensive. Mike appeared in the improvised feature films Unscrewed (with Labrats) and What Men Talk About. He is also a current member of NYC's inclusive adult choir Here to Sing. Love to Shoshi, Hanna & Heidi.

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Larry Rosen - Singer/Improvisor, Musical Interlude

Larry Rosen has been performing, teaching, and directing theater, storytelling, improvisation, and sketch comedy for more than 30 years through such institutions as AND Theatre Company, Second City, and NYU. He performed in AND's production of GPS in 2024; and his original piece, Love’s In Need Of Love, was featured in AND’s GO SOLO! festival in 2023. A master storytelling instructor with The Moth, Larry is proud to work regularly with individuals and diverse communities throughout the US and in selected cities worldwide.

 

Ross Rubin - Singer/Improvisor, Musical Interlude

 

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Catherine Santino - Playwright/Actor, Digital Footprint

Catherine Santino is a writer, journalist and performer based in New York City. She studied theater at Siena College and has appeared in many shows, from college and regional theater to comedy jams in bar basements. Currently, she's a writer/reporter at PEOPLE Magazine and is getting her MFA in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) at Hunter College.

 

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Kathleen Spinelli - Singer/Improvisor, Musical Interlude

Spin enjoys making things up. Based in NY, she performs at the Magnet Theatre, the PIT, the Rat, and has crossed the pond for Improv Fest Ireland. She's a member of the indie team Bizzo, and delighted to be reuniting with her MC Hammerstein fam for these shows!  IG:bulldog.bakery

 

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Jeffrey Sweet - Playwright, The Return of Ira
Jeffrey Sweet recently directed a swell production of his play THE VALUE OF NAMES in London. His first short story in 40 years has just been published in EVERY DAY A LITTLE DEATH, an anthology of crime fiction inspired by Stephen Sondheim.  A new edition of his Second City book, SOMETHING WONDERFUL RIGHT AWAY was released last year.  He's writing a new book.  And a new play, of course.  If you want to study with him or hire him for something -- jeffreysweet.playwright@gmail.com.

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Tara Troy* - Lily, Retirement from Public Service

Tara is thrilled to take part in this festival! She most recently portrayed Dr. Eliza Ann Grier in the one woman production of “Miss Grier Rises”, written by Cesi Davidson performed in NYC and on the island of St. Croix. She is an award-winning producer and director named “Best American Director Short Film” by the 2025 Wrap Film Festival for her directorial debut, “A Moment in Time”. Tara studied at Columbia College Chicago and William Esper Studio. Tara, a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and the Actors' Equity Association, is a Classical Pilates enthusiast and a green tea aficionado. 

 

Scotty Watson - Director, ANDprov, Digital Footprint, The Morning After

Off-Broadway Scotty was seen as the disembodied head of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton in the musical Walmartopia!  He is an alumnus of The Second City Canadian National Touring Company and served as an alternate for, “Bebe,” in Cirque du Soleil's Mystere.  On TV Scotty has dressed up as David Crosby, a human heart, and Carmen Miranda… but with dignity. He has done feature films with Ed Asner, Eric Stoltz, and Gerard Depardieu. 

 

Jared Wilder - Dad, The Return of Ira

Classically trained in Shakespeare, Checkhov, and Super Mario Bros.  Born and raised in the mean streets of the Upper West Side.  BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts through the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.  Seen on NBC's "CHUCK", ABC's "Hope & Faith", and the Burbank Comedy Festival.  You can follow me at @SomethinWilder or if you see me on the street.  Repped by 4K Talent. 

 

Joseph Coppola - Lighting Design

Joe has been working in professional theater throughout the Tri-State area for over 20 years.  He's a House Technician at Off-Broadway’s ART/NY Theatres and freelances in theatrical and event tech with dozens of clients, working primarily in both electrics and sound.  When not behind the scenes, he is a fight choreographer and actor combatant, and founding member of the Brooklyn Action Theater, a production company specializing in theatrical violence and storytelling.

Olivia Martin - Stage Manager

Olivia Martin (she/her) is a stage manager, actor, director, and designer based in NYC. She has a passion for vibrant storytelling, eager to work on anything from Shakespeare to big musicals to new works. Recent SM credits: Seussical (EPIC Players), Spring Shorts (NCTC), Critters (NCTC), The Tempest (Smoking Mirror Theatre Company), Romeo & Juliet (Boomerang Theatre Company), Matilda (Gallery Players), The Dating Show (Soho Playhouse). BFA in Drama, NYU Tisch School of the Arts.​

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*Equity Member appearing with permission of Actors’ Equity Association without
benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off Broadway productionwww.actorsequity.org

 

+Member Stage Directors Choreographers Society
 

+Member Stage Directors & Choreographers