Café Bohemia
ATC’s New Play Reading Series
Creative Team Bios
EDWIN SÀNCHEZ
Playwright (La Bella Familia)His most recent productions include Unmerciful Good Fortune, Trafficking in Broken Hearts and I’ll Take Romance, Diosa. His work has been produced at Hartford Stage, Actors Theater of Louisville as part of their Humana Festival, San Jose Repertory, Bank Street Theater, Intar Theater, Primary Stages and Evolution Theatre. Unmerciful Good Fortune received the Princess Grace Playwriting Award in 1994. Barefoot Boy With Shoes On was selected by the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference to represent the National Playwrights Conference at the Schelykovo Playwrights Seminar in Russia. He is also among the playwrights involved with Brave New World, an organization commemorating the events surrounding September 11, 2001.
JENNIFER BAZZELL
Director (La Bella Familia)The Literary Manager of Arizona Theatre Company, Ms. Bazzell is in her tenth season with ATC where she oversees both the National Latino Playwriting Award and the Arizona Playwriting Award. She has served as dramaturg for many ATC shows including the world premieres of Ten Chimneys by Jeffrey Hatcher, Somebody/Nobody by Jane Martin, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, and Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure by Steven Dietz, among others. Ms. Bazzell directed productions of Chicago and The Dining Room for ATC’s Summer on Stage program. She has also directed Dog Sees God for the University of Arizona’s Studio Series, Underneath the Lintel by Glen Berger and Fiction by Steven Dietz for Beowulf Alley Theatre Company and directed and adapted Voices From the Struggle for Primavera’s 25th anniversary celebration of their work fighting for economic and social justice. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Theory and an MA in Theatre Studies both from the University of Arizona.
MICHAEL FENLASON
Playwright (The Last Red Book)Michael Fenlason lives and works in Tucson. He has had plays performed at Playwright’s Workshop Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Phoenix, New York’s Raw Space and Theatre West End in Edinburgh, Scotland. Michael formed The Unlikely Theater Company in Phoenix in 1989 to produce original plays and donate the proceeds to other socially-committed non-profit charities. He currently works with Beowulf Alley Theatre in Tucson, where he was the director of the Page on the Stage New Play Festival this July.
DAVID MORDEN
Director (The Last Red Book)David Morden has directed The Rogue Theatre’s productions of Major Barbara, Ghosts, A Delicate Balance, The Goat (2008 Arizona Daily Star Mac Award), Six Characters in Search of an Author and Krapp’s Last Tape, Not I and Act Without Words. He has appeared with The Rogue Theatre as Rinieri in The Decameron, Stephano in The Tempest, Brabantio and Montano in Othello, Editor Webb in Our Town, in the ensembles of Animal Farm and Orlando, as Madame Pace in Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Pope in Red Noses, Yephikhov in The Cherry Orchard, The Man in the Silver Dress in the preshow to The Maids and Glaucus in Endymion. He has acted locally with Arizona Opera (The Pirates of Penzance, The Threepenny Opera, among others), Arizona Onstage Productions (Assassins), Actors Theatre (The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)) and Green Thursday Theatre Project (Anger Box, Rain), of which he was a co-founder. David has also directed productions with Green Thursday, Oasis Chamber Opera, DreamerGirl Productions, and Arts for All.
BRIAN DYKSTRA
Playwright (Used to Was (Maybe Did))Playwright: Hiding Behind Comets (world premiere, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park-Tony Award-winning season, 29th Street Rep, Zeitgeist Stage), Brian Dykstra: Cornered & Alone, That Damn Dykstra – the box set (Off-Broadway), Clean Alternatives (Edinburgh Fringe – Fringe First Award, 59E59, The Kitchen Theatre, Ithaca, NY). Strangerhorse (Kitchen Theatre, Ithaca, Access Theatre, NYC), The Two of You (Kitchen Theatre, Ithaca and slated to open next season in the National Theatre of Romania), A Play On Words (59E59, The Kitchen Theatre), Forsaking All Others (NY, LA, London), Silence (Holy Cross College, Stella Adler Conservatory), Spill The Wine (NYC Gayfest). Awards/Fellowships: Lark Play Development Center Playwright Fellow, 2004 National Theatre Conference Award - Hiding Behind Comets, The Vault's It's the End of the World As We Know It Award. Actor: Off Broadway: Clean Alternatives, Hiding Behind Comets, Brian Dykstra: Cornered & Alone, Breaking Legs, Incommunicado, Tatjana in Color, A Most Secret War and King John, Love's Labors Lost and Much Ado About Nothing at NYSF. Other NY: Americana Absurdum, That Damn Dykstra, STRANGERHORSE and Forsaking All Others. London: Americana Absurdum. Favorite regional credits: Rothko in Red, Don in Rounding Third, Heisenberg in Copenhagen, Eddie Carbone in A View From The Bridge, Gabe in Dinner with Friends, Sir Toby in Twelfth Night. Notable television & film: Third Watch, Law & Order, Chappelle's Show, Corn, Spectropia, Another Bed, Knight and Day, and Freedomland. www.briandykstra.net
STEPHEN WRENTMORE
Director (Used to Was (Maybe Did)) and (Hunka)Please see Mr. Wrentmore's Associate Artistic Director biography on the ATC Leadership Bios page.
ELAINE ROMERO
Playwright (Wetback)Elaine Romero has won over $125,000 for her plays, which have been presented at the Goodman Theatre, Alley Theatre, Newtown Theatre, and Actors Theatre of Louisville, among others. Recent commissions include American Theatre Company, InterAct Theatre Company, and Kitchen Dog Theater Company. Publishers include Samuel French, Playscripts, Vintage Books, and Simon and Schuster. Some commissions include Sun, Stone and Shadows (Arkansas Repertory Theatre), Alicia (Zachary Scott Theatre), Something Rare and Wonderful (Alley Theatre), and Xochi: Jaguar Princess (Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts commission) Rain of Ruin was produced by Short+Sweet (Sydney) and featured on Australian television. Revolutions premiered at Manhattan Theatre Source, and, in Spanish at the Panama National Theatre. Ponzi (Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award) received its World Premiere at Kitchen Dog Theatre (KDT). Readings were at KDT, Goodman Theatre and Florida Studio Theatre. A Work of Art premiered at American Theatre Company in Chicago. Barrio Hollywood received its Spanish World Premiere at Aurora Theatre. It was the first play in Samuel French’s history to be published in both languages. Wetback had development at Voice and Vision’s ENVISION Retreat, Arkansas Repertory Voices at the River, Invisible Theatre and Urban Stages. Upcoming readings will be at Teatro Vista and Arizona Theatre Company. Walking Home will be published in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Elaine taught in the RTVF Department at Northwestern University.
SAMANTHA K. WYER
Director (Wetback)Samantha K. Wyer is delighted to return to ATC, where she served for thirteen seasons as Associate Artistic Director / Director of Education. As Director of Education at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., Ms. Wyer oversees STC’s twenty-seven School, Training, Community Engagement and Audience Enrichment programs and publications. Ms. Wyer’s ATC directing credits include Lost in Yonkers, The Lady with All the Answers, It’s a Wonderful Life, To Kill a Mockingbird (co-production with Kansas City Rep), I Am My Own Wife, Tuesdays With Morrie, Permanent Collection, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Proof and Wit. Ms. Wyer has directed workshops of Wetback for Voice and Vision, NY and Arkansas Repertory Theatre and has developed other Elaine Romero’s plays including, Ponzi, Barrio Hollywood, Like Heaven and Secret Things. Her other Arizona directing credits include An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Betrayal, The Philadelphia Story, Noises Off!, The Three Sisters, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Arcadia, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues by Jeff Goode and Two Days of Grace at Middleham by Toni Press-Coffman, a play she also directed for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. She has been a guest director and instructor for University of Arizona, University of Missouri/Kansas City and Arizona State. Ms. Wyer received her MFA in Directing from the University of Missouri and was awarded the Buffalo Exchange Arts Award by the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona.
LARISSA FASTHORSE
Playwright (Hunka)Larissa FastHorse is a playwright and choreographer from the Sicangu Lakota Nation. In 2010 she was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Distinguished New Play Development Grant for Fancy Dancer. Her past equity theatre productions are Average Family for Children's Theatre Company and Teaching Disco Squaredancing To Our Elders: A Class Presentation for Native Voices at the Autry. Larissa is currently working on her newest play, Hunka, with the Arizona Theatre Company. Commissioned plays include Fancy Dancer for Children's Theatre Company, A Dancing People for Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences, Serra Springs for Native Voices at the Autry and LA History Project, and Different Does Not Mean The Same for Native Voices at the Autry.
Selected awards include the Center Theatre Group Writer’s Workshop 2011‐12, Aurand Harris Fellowship, Sundance/Ford Foundation Fellowship, National Geographic Seed Grant and inscribed delegate to the UN in Geneva. TV credits include two pilots; The Line for Fox and Lakota Falls for Teen Nick.
Larissa’s plays may be found with Dramatic Publishing, Plays for Young Audiences, the Native American Women Playwrights Archive at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and in the Alexander Street Press North American Indian Drama Database. Larissa currently resides in Santa Monica CA with her husband, sculptor Edd Hogan. www.hoganhorsestudio.com
DWAYNE HARTFORD
Playwright (The Color of Stars)Dwayne Hartford is an associate artist and playwright-in-residence at Childsplay, where his plays for young audiences have been developed through the Whiteman New Plays Program before premiering with the company. Three of his plays have been published by Dramatic Publishing and have been produced around the country and in Canada. Eric and Elliot, was named the 2005 Distinguished Play by the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. The Imaginators had an extended run at Florida Rep in Fort Myers, and was produced and aired on KAET TV, the Phoenix PBS affiliate. His adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities was part of NYU’s New Plays for Young Audiences Workshop and has been performed at Seattle Children’s Theatre, People’s Light and Theatre in Philadelphia, and at Wheelock Family Theatre in Boston. A new musical revue, Rock the Presidents is premiering this year at Childsplay. Dwayne is originally from a small town in central Maine. He received his BFA from the Boston Conservatory.
GRAHAM WHITEHEAD
Director (The Color of Stars)Graham Whitehead was the Associate Artistic Director for Childsplay for several years with responsibility for the New Plays Program. For Childsplay he directed Wolf Child: The Correction of Joseph, And Then They Came for Me, Wind in the Willows, Selkie, Salt and Pepper and The Boxcar Children. He also played Lincoln in Lincoln’s Log and the Chair in the Portrait the Wind the Chair. Previously, Graham was the Artistic Director of Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, and since moving to the US, has taught at Arizona State University and worked as a free-lance director and actor. Directing highlights include Comedy of Errors and Driving Miss Daisy for Phoenix Theatre; Fiddler on the Roof and Dear Esther for the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company; Dialogues of the Carmelites, Cabaret, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Pippen and Carousel for Lyric Opera Theatre at ASU.
