Shakina Nayfack
Playwright & Kina
Currently starring in the NBC sitcom "Connecting..." Shakina can also be seen in Amazon’s GLAAD Award-winning "Transparent Musicale Finale", which she helped write and produce with Joey and Faith Soloway, and the Hulu original comedy "Difficult People", for which she was also a writing consultant. Shakina is also the voice of Hana in the English dub of Satoshi Kon’s anime classic Tokyo Godfathers, and has appeared previously on television in "Jessica Jones" (Netflix), "The Detour" (TBS) and on Broadway in The 24 Hour Plays and The Red Bucket Follies. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory in New York City, where she helped to develop hundreds of new musicals including Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning A Strange Loop and her own autobiographical glam rock odyssey, Manifest Pussy. Shakina is currently developing a television pilot based on her life story, an original movie for Lifetime Television, and a rock opera, JUNK, with the Swedish pop band Brainpool. Recognitions include The Lilly Award for Working Miracles, Theatre Resources Unlimited Humanitarian Award, The Kilroys List, Logo 30, and two-time Drama League fellow and OUT 100 honoree. More at www.Shakina.nyc and @shakeenz.
Laura Savia
Director
Laura Savia is the Associate Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she is in her eleventh season. Directing credits include the world premieres, James Anthony Tyler’s Artney Jackson (Williamstown), Lucy Thurber’s Once Upon a Time in the Berkshires and Orpheus in the Berkshires (Williamstown), Lucy Thurber’s Unstuck (59E59/Throughline), and Bareknuckle (Vertigo Theatre) as well Ryan Haddad’s Hi, Are You Single? (Public Theater, The Guthrie, Woolly Mammoth). Her production of Jonathan Caren’s The Recommendation for IAMA won two Ovation Awards, including Best Production. Other directing credits include James Lescesne’s The Absolute Brightness of Leonardy Pelkey (City Theatre), Adam Rapp’s Red Light Winter (Itself Festival in Poland) and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale featuring Hoon Lee (Warren Miller Performing Arts Center). She has directed short plays by Rob Askins and Halley Feiffer for Naked Angels and Living Newspaper plays by Sarah Burgess and Don Nguyen (at A.R.T./Club Oberon, Joe’s Pub, and Le Poisson Rouge). She has developed work with Roundabout Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Atlantic Theater Company, Second Stage, Labyrinth Theater Company, Ars Nova, Playwrights Realm, Primary Stages, Rattlestick, and Ma-Yi Theater Company. Assistant directing includes Broadway’s The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino. Laura spent five seasons on the artistic staff at Atlantic Theater Company. She is an alum of the Drama League Directors Project and Northwestern University.
Ivory Aquino
Hom
Ivory Aquino was a main cast member in the ABC miniseries “When We Rise,” winner of the 2018 GLAAD Award for Outstanding Limited Series. Ivory's portrayal earned a nomination for Best Actress at the 2017 POZ Awards and was included in Emmy magazine’s “In the Mix”, People magazine’s “One to Watch” and The Hollywood Reporter’s “Next Big Thing” features.
Film credits include the Netflix film Lingua Franca, which premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori, and Lapsis, which was set to premiere at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival. She also notably guest starred in the CBS drama “FBI: Most Wanted”. And in Bryant Park Shakespeare, she has played roles such as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Isabella in Measure for Measure and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.
Ivory is a first-generation immigrant, member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and transgender rights activist. Twitter/FB/IG: MsIvoryAquino.
Kate Bornstein
Sivan
Author, playwright, performance artist, and actress Kate Bornstein is a trans icon whose wide range of work over the past 40+ years has been in service to sex positivity, gender anarchy, and to building a coalition of those who live on cultural margins.
Her bestselling books, Gender Outlaw, My New Gender Workbook, and Hello Cruel World are taught in hundreds of colleges. She has performed her solo performance work in theaters across the globe, as well as speaking and leading workshops on the themes of nonbinary gender, fun sex, and alternatives to suicide.
The subject of Sam Feder’s award-winning documentary, A Queer and Pleasant Danger, Kate has also had starring roles in film, television and the 2018 Broadway production of Straight White Men.
Liz Lark Brown
Tamar
Liz Lark Brown is a NYC-based actor/singer/voiceover artist. She has enjoyed years of collaborative performance as a member of Joe Iconis and Family, which led her to meeting the inimitable Shakina Nayfack, and becoming a founding member of The Musical Theatre Factory. Through this, she was afforded the opportunity to be a part of myriad new works with up-and-coming, award-winning writers both there and beyond. Liz is grateful to Shakina and Williamstown for inviting her to be a part of this important story, and to learn from all the beautiful talents with whom she shares the page, and (virtual) stage.
For her solo show Tarnished, she won the 2011 MAC, Bistro and Nightlife Awards. Graduate of William Esper Studio, and BFA from Syracuse University. Find her @Lalabee213.
Samy Figaredo
Jake
Samy Nour Younes Figaredo is a proud multi-hyphenate: Lebanese-American, Puerto Rican, actor, activist, aerialist, consultant, pianist, public speaker, puppeteer, singer, and more. Samy uses both masculine (he/him) and neutral (they/them) pronouns. Samy has recently performed in such noteworthy productions as Pay No Attention to the Girl (Target Margin Theater), Well-Intentioned White People (Barrington Stage Company), and Into the Woods (Ford’s Theatre), to name a few. They can also be seen on Season 4 of Amazon’s original series "Transparent". Their one-person show, everyday, debuted at The Tank in December 2019, with a remount planned in the future. They also recorded two audiobooks by transgender authors to be released this year. Samy is highly involved in trans activism, having served on the leadership teams of the DC Area Transmasculine Society, the Baltimore Transgender Alliance, and the Charm City Sisters. They have co-organized rallies and benefit events for Trans Pride, Transgender Day of Remembrance, and more; and have spoken publicly on discrimination in the workforce and healthcare. Some of the organizations to benefit from these efforts include HIPS DC, Moveable Feast, Youth Empowered Society, Sistas of the “T,” and Brother Help Thyself. Samy’s most visible contribution is their 2018 TED Talk on Trans History. Professional efforts include Samy’s work as an Inclusivity Trainer for the Ackerman Institute’s Gender & Family Project, and the Project & Community Manager at Arts Business Collaborative, a nonprofit consulting firm committed to improving the quality of life of people of color through the arts and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
Annie Golden
Lisa
Annie Golden considers herself the illegitimate child of the legitimate theatre, having been discovered on the Bowery fronting a rock band and cast by Milos Forman as Jeannie in Hair, the 1978 film.
Some Broadway credits include: Violet, Xanadu, The Full Monty, Ah! Wilderness.
Recently: Broadway Bounty Hunter (Off-Broadway).
Also was Sondheim’s original Squeaky Fromme in Assassins (Playwrights Horizons).
Numerous Film/TV credits, most notably her role as Norma Romano in the hit series “Orange Is the New Black” for six seasons for Lionsgate/Netflix. Will soon be seen recurring on FOX’S "Filthy Rich".
Bianca Leigh
Jerri
Bianca Leigh is an actress, singer, writer, and educator. Miss Leigh’s acting roles include Waxy Bush in MTC’s The Nap on Broadway (Understudy/performed), Mary Ellen in the groundbreaking film Transmerica, Time/Wind in Taylor Mac’s theatre epic The Lily's Revenge, Franny Halcyon in the New York and San Francisco workshops of Tales of the City: The Musical, Tatiana in Paul Lucas’ award-winning verbatim piece Trans Scripts at American Repertory Theatre, Beatrice in Christina Anderson’s Man in Love at Kansas City Rep, Dr. Rachel Sandow on "Law & Order: SVU", and Karma Johnstone in Hurricane Bianca. Bianca wrote and performed her solo musical Busted, about the challenges and dangers facing a young Trans woman in pre-Disney New York, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. Her play, MBJrT, was part of the Monday Night Playwright Series at Kansas City Rep in 2018. She is featured in Laverne Cox’s documentary Disclosure, an exploration of Trans representation in motion pictures and on television.
Telly Leung
Gamon
Telly Leung is a New York City native, Broadway performer, recording artist, producer, and theater arts teacher. His Broadway and national touring credits include Aladdin in Disney's Aladdin on Broadway, In Transit, Allegiance (with George Takei & Lea Salonga), Godspell, Rent (final Broadway company), Wicked (Boq, original Chicago company), Pacific Overtures, Flower Drum Song. In 2010, he starred as Angel in Rent at the Hollywood Bowl opposite Wayne Brady, directed by Neil Patrick Harris. Regionally, he's performed at Philadelphia Theater Company, Pittsburgh CLO, The St. Louis MUNY, Dallas Theater Center, The Shakespeare Theater Company in D.C., North Carolina Theater, and North Shore Musical Theater. Television audiences will remember him as Wes the Warbler on “Glee", as well as his guest star appearances on "Instinct", “Odd Mom Out”, “Deadbeat”, and “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”. Telly is featured as a coach for the Jimmy Awards in the PBS documentary, "Broadway or Bust". He can be heard on many original Broadway cast recordings and has released two solo albums - I’ll Cover You (2012) and Songs for You (2016) - on The Yellow Sound Label. He holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama. He has taught master classes and courses at American universities like NYU, Nazareth College, The University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, and Point Park and has been a guest teacher at drama programs all over the world, from Edinburgh to Tokyo. His producing credits include the concert series “Broadway Back Together”, the musical short film Grind (starring Anthony Rapp), and the family-friendly holiday musical The Nice List. Twitter/Instagram: @tellyleung. Website: www.tellyleung.com
Dana Aliya Levinson
Dinah/Aylin
Dana Aliya Levinson (they/she) is an actor, writer, and musician. Favorite acting credits include:
TV: Toni Rykener in the upcoming third season of "American Gods" (Starz), Sadie Lipton in "The Good Fight" (CBS All Access).
Film: Hazel in Adam (dir. Rhys Ernst, Sundance, 2019), Jess in The Dress You Have On (dir. Courtney Hope Thérond, OutFest 2018), Shira “Rose” Loewenstein in FRAUD (dir. Zen Pace).
Theatre: Grace in the world premiere of Ballast.
Dana's visual album, FALLING, directed by Zen Pace and supported by Eve Ensler and One Billion Rising, premiered with PAPER magazine this year.
Dana was a Dramatists Guild Fellow and their TV pilot script "FRAUD" was a finalist for the Sundance Episodic Lab. Dana is a proud member of the Buchwald Family where she is represented across the board.
www.danaaliyalevinson.com
Pooya Mohseni
Bernice
Pooya is an Iranian-American actor, writer, filmmaker, and Transgender activist. She's co-producer, star, and co-writer of Transit, a short film about love between a trans woman and a cis man, coming out in 2020. Her stage performances include Our Town in Pride Plays, dir. Jenna Worsham, Hamlet in Play On Shakespeare festival, dir. Ellen McLaughlin, an award-winning one woman show One Woman, in United Solo at The Theatre Row, dir. Joan Kane, Galatea, dir. Mo Zhou for the WP Pipeline festival, The Good Muslim dir. William Carden at EST. She has guest starred on season 21 of “Law & Order: SVU “ dir. Mariska Hargitay, as well as “Falling Water" on USA and “Madam Secretary”. A special thanks to Headline Talent Agency. @pooyaland on social media.
Angelica Ross
Van
Angelica Ross, Founder & CEO, TransTech, Actress, and Advocate
From the board room, to film and TV sets to Capitol Hill, Angelica Ross is a leading figure of success and strength, in the movement for Transgender and racial equality. A series regular on the ninth season of Ryan Murphy’s FX hit "American Horror Story: 1984", and confirmed to return for the currently untitled season ten, Angelica is blazing a trail, kicking open doors, and building her own table with ample open seats.
In 2020, Angelica became a face of Nicolas Ghesquière’s recent pre-Fall campaign for Louis Vuitton — a campy homage to vintage sci-fi book covers.
Angelica’s acting breakthrough came in the form of Ryan Murphy’s award-winning FX hit, "Pose" — which follows NYC’s Black and Latino LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming ballroom culture scene, in the 80’s and early 90’s. Making TV history, the show features the largest transgender cast ever for a scripted series. Vanity Fair raved that "Angelica Ross steals many of her scenes as ‘Candy’ the brashest member of the House of Abundance."
Since studying acting at Florida Atlantic University, Angelica has appeared across numerous mediums, including film, television, and theatre. One project, the Emmy-nominated (Outstanding ShortForm Comedy or Drama) web series "Her Story", received special recognition at the GLAAD Media Awards. A segment Angelica appeared in on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, was honored with a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Talk Show Episode. She’s also appeared in "Transparent" (Amazon), "Claws" (TNT), "Doubt" (CBS), and "Danger & Eggs" (Amazon).
Miss Ross also works behind the camera! She executive produced and appeared in the Daytime Emmy-nominated web series "King Ester" (2019), and in the short film "Missed Connections" (2017), which went on to be an official selection at the Outfest LGBTQ Film Festival, the La Femme International Film Festival, and the Baltimore International Black Film Festival.
Angelica Ross is the President of Miss Ross, Inc. and founder of TransTech Social Enterprises, a program that helps people lift themselves out of poverty through technical training, digital work creating a social impact, and bringing economic empowerment to marginalized communities.
Ita Segev
Yael
Ita Segev makes live performance, writes, acts/performs, occasionally models, and does cultural and community building work. Using both a multi- and un-disciplined approach, her work nudges towards an anti-colonial, transfeminist futurity, drawing on the intersections of her personal and sociopolitical contexts as a white anti-Zionist Israeli trans woman who immigrated to the US.
Ita premiered her latest show "Knot In My Name" at Gibney in NYC. She developed this work through residencies or grants at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, New York Theatre Workshop, Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
As an actor/performer Ita’s recent credits include acting in Shakina Nayfack’s Chonburi International Hotel & Butterfly Club (a collaboration between Audible and Williamstown Theatre Festival), and touring the world with 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s "The Fever". She performed at institutions such as The Public Theater, La MaMa, Danspace Project, Brooklyn Art Exchange, The Invisible Dog, Abrons Art Center, NYLA, MASS MoCA, PACE Gallery, Woolly Mammoth, The Clark Art Institute, MESS Festival (Sarajevo), Noorderzon (The Netherlands), PuSH Festival (Vancouver), and many more.
Ita spoke at universities such as NYU, Columbia University, Clark College, Hunter College, and University of Memphis. She is the founder (in collaboration with David Sierra) of "(Space) For the Girls" – a residency and curatorial program for trans women and femmes in NY making live performance.
You can read Ita's writing, hear/read about her work, and see her visual collaborations in Out Magazine, Them magazine, Lenny Letter, Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, Rookie Magazine, Hunger Magazine, PROTOCOLS, Trans Dance, and Unsettled podcast and follow her on IG @itaqt.
Jason Tam
Duan
Jason Tam was recently seen in the hit NBC Live "Jesus Christ Superstar" as Peter opposite John Legend and Sara Bareilles, and Off-Broadway in the critically acclaimed KPOP (Lortel Award), a collaboration between Woodshed Collective, Ars Nova, and Ma-Yi Theatre Company. Jason’s Broadway credits include Be More Chill (and Off-Broadway), IF/THEN, Lysistrata Jones, and the original Paul in the revival of A Chorus Line. He has also been part of numerous Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions. Jason’s TV credits include "FBI", "The Blacklist", "Do No Harm", "Guilty", "Hawaii 5-0", "One Life to Live", and "Beyond the Break", and he was seen in the documentary Every Little Step. Jason holds a BFA from NYU Tisch.
Joanna Fang
Sound Designer
Joanna Fang is a Primetime Emmy Award-winning Foley artist and sound designer. Fang has performed Foley and crafted sounds for countless films, documentaries, television shows, live theater, and experimental media.
An alumni of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Joanna started performing Foley professionally after graduating in 2014 and works alongside her mentor Foley artist Leslie Bloome at Alchemy Post Sound in Peekskill, NY. Through her sounds, she has had the privilege of dancing for FX’s "Fosse/Verdon", hunting terrorists on Hulu’s "The Looming Tower", rolling joints for HBO’s "High Maintenance", and crashing a bus for Ira Glass on "This American Life".
In 2016, she was recognized by the Television Academy as the first openly transgender woman of color to win a Primetime Emmy for her sound work on A&E’s "Cartel Land". When she’s not in the studio; she can found writing poetry and prose, playing her Telecaster, or advocating for transgender rights. She’s honored to join this cast and crew through her sound design and Foley work.
Barbara Rubin
Dialect Coach
3rd WTF Season: Photograph 51, Chonburi International Hotel & Butterly Club, A Raisin in The Sun, A Human Being of a Sort, Dangerous House.
Broadway: Girl From The North Country [Associate Director], The Road to Mecca.
Off-Broadway: The Rolling Stone (LCT), Boesman and Lena (Signature), Mies Julie (CSC), Master Harold...and the Boys, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, The Train Driver, My Children! My Africa!, The Blood Knot (Signature Theatre), My Name is Asher Lev (Westside Theatre).
Regional: Beautiful (National Tour), My Name is Asher Lev (Long Wharf Theatre), Going To St Ives (Barrington Stage Co.), Born Yesterday (Pittsburgh Public Theatre), Judgement Day (Bard SummerScape).
Film: Daniel Radcliffe in Escape From Pretoria, Adam Bakri in Official Secrets, Jennifer Hudson and Terence Howard in Winnie.
TV: Julia Garner in “Inventing Anna” for Netflix, “Chicago Med”, “The Americans”, “Blindspot.”
Faculty: American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Joy Lanceta Coronel
Dialect Coach
Joy is a speech and dialect coach based in NYC. She earned her MFA in Voice Studies from the University of London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has coached alongside Comedy Central, Center Theatre Group, Atlantic Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, American Players Theatre, Ma-Yi Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, NAATCO, and New Dramatists. She currently serves as Speech faculty at HB Studio. Joy also works as an executive presentation and communication coach for corporate professionals. In addition to coaching, you will find published articles by Joy in the Voice and Speech Review covering topics like racial identity, cultural sensitivity, and inclusive coaching and teaching strategies. www.joylancetacoronel.com
Charlie Barnett IV
Assistant Director
Charlie Barnett IV is a Brooklyn-based theatre artist. As a costume designer and technician, Charlie has worked with the Williamstown Theatre Festival (Wardrobe Supervisor and Costume Designer), Troy Foundry Theatre (Resident Costume Designer), and the Theatre Institute at Sage (Costume Designer). Most recent credits include: The Headlands (LCT3), (A)loft Modulation (The american vicarious), A Walrus in the Body of a Crocodile (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Saturday Morning Cartoons with Cereal (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Yellow, 100 Years, Prohibition Project: Illium Was, and Catastrophe Carnivale: An Evening of Beckett Shorts (Troy Foundry Theatre). The latter for which he was awarded the BroadwayWorld Award - Best Costume Design for his work.
Riw Rakkulchon
Cultural Competency Consultant
Riw is a Set Designer from Bangkok, Thailand. Throughout his career thus far, Riw is an associate and assistant to several designers in New York while designing his own productions. Selected credits: Cymbeline (The Public Theatre), Twelfth Night (Yale Repertory Theatre), The Waiting Game (59E59), Free and Proud (Edinburgh Fringe), Loose Canon (Fringe Encore NYC 2015), and Far From Canterbury (FringeNYC). He assisted designers such as Riccardo Hernandez, Wilson Chin, Jason Ardizzone-West, and Walt Spangler on productions at Center Theatre Group, Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, and Berkeley Rep, amongst others. He studied stage design under Ming Cho Lee, Riccardo Hernandez, and Michael Yeargan at Yale School of Drama, receiving the Donald & Zorca Oenslager Fellowship Award in Design upon graduation. Prior to Yale, Riw received his bachelor's degree from Ithaca College. Riw has worked on several devised pieces during his time in Thailand with companies such as B-Floor Theatre, Democrazy Studio, and Grand Opera Thailand.
For more information, please visit www.riwrdesign.com.
Instagram: @riwrdesign.
