This Week's Contributors on nytheatre.com
CATE CAMMARATA is a director, dramaturg, writer, teaching artist and passionate advocate of arts education. She has worked with Hughes Moss Casting, Norman Rothstein & Associates, The Travel Channel and Syracuse Stage. She is the founding Director of Music in Me Productions on Long Island and a contributing arts writer to Mater et Magistra Magazine. Currently the Educational Associate at the John W. Engeman Theatre at Northport (Long Island), she holds a BFA in Acting and Directing from Syracuse University and is now working toward her MFA degree in Dramaturgy at SUNY Stony Brook.
Coming soon.
CORY CONLEY is a playwright in New York City. His play The More Loving One was presented in the 2011 New York International Fringe Festival, where it received the Overall Excellence Award for Best Play and was included in the Encores Series at Soho Playhouse. His full-length play The Sunset Party was developed and received staged readings at New York Theater Workshop and at Manhattan Theater Club's creative center. His one-act play Calvin's Island was produced in 2008 at the Linhart Theater. He participated in the 24-hour play festival Trinity @ Trinity, hosted by Ex Libris Theatre, and in the Prophecy Productions Writing Lab, which resulted in a staged reading of his one-act, Between Us. He is a 2006 graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and the Playwrights Horizons Theater School, where he wrote and performed two original pieces, What We Become Is and The Last Days of Autumn.
DAVID FULLER is an actor, director, producer, teacher, designer, technician, theater critic, and arts advocate. A graduate of Dartmouth, magna cum laude, he received his actor training in London at LAMDA. A member of AEA and AFTRA, he has acted regionally throughout the U.S., both on and off Broadway, in London, on daytime television, and is an alumnus of The Acting Company. Recent acting: Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Prospero in The Tempest (both at Theater Ten Ten in NYC). David received his MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College. As director, he has over 30 shows to his credit, in NYC and regionally. Recent directing: Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock; The 103rd Annual Performance of Ruddigore or the Witch’s Curse Presented by Murgatroyd’s Hospital for Mental Rehabilitation, Ruddy Gore, Maine; Pericles (Hudson Warehouse, NYC); A Grand Night for Singing; Brecht/Weill’s Happy End. In 4 of the last 5 years, his productions have been nominated for Best Musical by the NY Innovative Theatre Awards. Currently co-founder and Producing Artistic Director (with Judith Jarosz) of Theater 2020 “Visions for a New Millennium,” he was Executive Director of NYC’s Theater Ten Ten from 2005 to 2010. Prior to that, he was Producing Artistic Director of off-Broadway’s Jean Cocteau Rep. for 6 seasons. In the past 14 years he has produced 55 plays and musicals in NYC. He has taught stage combat, audition technique, and acting at both high schools and universities, including CUNY and NYU. David is a past co-chair of AASC (Arts Advisors to NYC Council Select Committee for the Revitalization of Lower Manhattan). He was elected to the prestigious National Theater Conference in 2004. David resides in Brooklyn Heights with his wife and partner Judith Jarosz.
Erin Layton is a playwright, producer and solo performing artist. Her first full length play, MAGDALEN (dir. Julie Kline, Rattlestick Playwrights, Rising Phoenix Repertory)premiered at the New York City International Fringe Festival in 2012 to critical acclaim and was recently published in Indie Theater Now. For several years, Erin acted as guest and principal performing artist with Long Island University’s Theatre Dept. (Brooklyn, NY) in their productions of GLASS MENAGERIE, FIRES IN THE MIRROR and TWELFTH NIGHT. Erin has performed in numerous off-broadway and off-off broadway productions in NYC including the two person adaptation of THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE (Off-Broadway Alliance Nominee for Best Family Show), TAURIS (Planet Connections Festivity), PITCH (LaMama ETC.), WEIRD SISTERS (Gene Frankel Theatre) and HERE WE GO THEN YOU AND I (UndergroundZero Theatre Festival) among others. She originated the role of Annie/Elsie with director, Jeremy Williams (Naropa University) and actress/playwright, Susan Ferrara (We Got Help!) for Susan’s play, DARGER about the painter Henry Darger. Erin has studied extensively with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company and has facilitated workshops in the philosophy of Viewpoints and Suzuki for the purposes of engaging actors in the collaborative process of devising new work. Erin’s one person play, MAGDALEN, made its first national tour to the Santa Cruz Fringe Festival in 2013 and has been previously workshopped through Primary Stages ESPA, Stage Left Studios,The Kumble Theater and Ryan Repertory Theatre. She continues to work with Produce Your Own Work’s Molly Pearson on developing her voice as a self-producing artist and entrepreneur. www.magdalentheplay.com
HEATHER LEE ROGERS has been making theater in NYC for over a decade and lives for the privilege. She has performed at La MaMa, HERE, The Public, The Ontological-Hysteric, Theatre Row, FringeNYC, The Brick, The Kraine, random sidewalks, several parks, libraries, schools, you name it. She has performed plays by Euripides, Sam Shepard, Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Maria Irene Fornes and in premieres of new work she has proudly helped to develop. She has written two plays of her own, produced with several companies, and supported theater from a variety of technical positions. She has a BFA in Acting from NYU/Tisch. More about Heather's acting career can be found at www.heatherogers.com.
JUDITH JAROSZ is an actor, producer, director, choreographer, writer, editor, and theater geek. As a performer Judith has had leading or featured roles on Broadway, at the New York City Opera (Lincoln Center and on tour), regionally (including Goodspeed and BAM), and as far off Broadway as The Quester's Theater in London and the National Theater in Taipei. She was an assistant director at the New York City Opera, where she was also on the Principal Soprano roster and was the only person at NYCO to simultaneously hold positions in the artistic and administrative departments. She was an acting company member of Jean Cocteau Repertory where she also served as a marketing and press consultant, and director of their Moonlight Music Series. She has been a grant panelist for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and the Manhattan Community Arts Fund (MCAF), and is owner of Poor Yorick Productions, a commercial production entity. She is a member of several performance unions, as well as a charter member of The League of Independent Theater. For more than ten years, Judith was the Producing Artistic Director for Theater Ten Ten, the longest consecutively operating Equity theater company off-Broadway, which, under her leadership, was the recipient of multiple nominations and awards; and is currently Producing Artistic Director of Theater 2020 “Visions for a New Millennium.” She lives in beautiful Brooklyn Heights with her partner in life and fun, David Fuller.
JULIE CONGRESS is co-artistic director of No.11 Productions. With No.11: The Elephant Man—The Musical, Lysistrata, Jet of Blood or the Ball of Glass, We Three, Claire and the Ornithological Shadow. Julie is a graduate of Skidmore College with a BS in Theatre (concentrating in directing and acting) and the Moscow Art Theatre School. Other credits include: Scout's Honor (FringeNYC 2007), Sun, Stand Thou Still (director), Vampire Cowboy Trilogy (director), Aloha Say the Pretty Girls (Wendy), and Killer Joe (Dottie). Julie has been a reviewer with nytheatre.com for more than eight years.
MARTIN DENTON is the founder, editor, and chief reviewer of nytheatre.com. He is the Executive Director of nytheatre.com's nonprofit parent organization, The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. (NYTE); the editor of NYTE's annual Plays and Playwrights anthologies, along with the collections Playing with Canons and Unpredictable Plays; and the founding producer of nytheatrecast, NYC's first original, regularly scheduled theatre podcast. He also designs and codes all of NYTE's websites. In 2011, Martin became founding editor and curator of Indie Theater Now, a new website that's being described as "iTunes for plays." Martin received an OTTY (Our Town Thanks You) Award for contributions to the community in 2008; and with NYTE's Managing Director Rochelle Denton, he was honored with the 2008 Stewardship Award from the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation. In addition to reviewing, Martin schedules and edits all reviews published on nytheatre.com; if you are interested in having your show reviewed or have any questions about our reviews, contact Martin.
MARY NOTARI is an actor, singer, puppeteer, clown, and general jack of all trades based in Brooklyn, NY. She's appeared with a plethora of independent theater production companies in NYC, including No. 11 Productions, Hybrid Theatre Works, Sinking Ship Productions, and the International WOW Company. She can currently be found stirring the pot with the creative activist group known as The Yes Men.
MATT ROBERSON is a writer, comedic performer, and budding theatre scholar. He has had his work produced by Whole World Theatre in Atlanta, and has performed in Chicago at Zanies Comedy Club, Chicago Underground, and at the It Is It Show and the Knitting Factory here in New York. In addition, Matt is in the thesis stage of his M.A. in Theatre Studies (Hunter College), where his research has focused on 19th/20th century American Theatre and Greek Comedy. He currently lives in Queens, and is a proud member of the Episcopal Actors' Guild, an organization committed to providing financial assistance to actors in need since 1923.
NATHANIEL KRESSEN is a Brooklyn-based playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. His plays have been performed and workshopped at PS 122, Soho Rep Walkerspace, The American Globe Theatre, Alive Theatre (CA), The Source Festival (DC), Longwood University (VA), Venture Theatre (MT), Hovey Players (MA), Old Armory Theatre (ND), Connecticut Heritage Productions, Prophecy Productions, FACT NYC, Spare Change Theater, The Lee Strasberg Institute, and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. They are published and licensed by The Good Ear Review, One Act Play Depot, and YouthPlays. His screenplay Adopting Skins won The Relevance Group’s American Details Competition, and is currently in pre-production with that same company. His short fiction appears in The Battered Suitcase, a quarterly review published by Vagabondage Press. He completed his first novel in January 2011, titled Concrete Fever. He is currently working on his second novel, titled Duck Theory.
NITA CONGRESS is an editor and book designer, with a specialty in independent, innovative self-published literature. In addition to editing and laying out all of NYTE's annual Plays and Playwrights anthologies, she has worked on several play anthologies, including Playing with Canons: Explosive New Works form Great Literature by America’s Indie Playwrights, Worthy But Neglected: Plays of the Mint Theater Company, and Unpredictable Plays. She also edits and lays out Gargoyle magazine and numerous literary works, most recently the novel That Paris Year. She consults frequently with NYTE on expanding the limits of the written—and virtual—page to better convey and communicate theatre art. She has been an editor/designer for thirty years, and a playgoer for forty-seven.
PAMELA BUTLER has been involved in New York indie theatre for the past decade plus, as a stage manager, dramaturg, director and producer. She has worked with Gallery Players in Brooklyn, Henry Street Settlement, Nicu's Spoon, and others, and has been thrilled to direct and produce Leslie Bramm's plays as well. She plans to continue to keep her fingers in the delicious dramatic pie, and is happy to be reviewing for nytheatre.com once again.
Ron Cohen (AEA, SAG-AFTRA, AGMA name: Ronald Cohen) has performed with such New York indie companies as Boomerang Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Crossing Delancey, New York Classical Theatre and Kings County Shakespeare Company. He has also participated in readings and workshops with New Dramatists, Food for Thought and the Pirandello Project, among others. Outside of New York, he has worked with such venues as Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; the New Theatre, Overland Park, KS.; Circle Theatre, Kansas City, MO.; Orlando (FL) Shakespeare Festival; Chautauqua Opera, Chautauqua, NY, and City Players, St. Louis. He also directed numerous productions, both plays and cabaret performances. His reviews of theatre have appeared in such publications as Women’s Wear Daily, where he served as city editor and various other positions for many years; Musical Stages, London; and Backstage. And in years back, he reviewed and commented on theatre for KWMU-FM in St. Louis.
