The April Event

Chelsea Clark

Chelsea Clark is excited to be part of this wonderful production and work with such a talented cast and crew. Chelsea's first feature film, The Death of April, has been released domestically and internationally. Through the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), she has performed in a recurring principal role as Vera in Steven Soderbergh's The Knick. She has appeared as a lead character in Jimmy T. Martin’s six-episode Dead On Acting, and she has been the lead in Sam Cooke's film short Monomyth, which has been well received at three film festivals. Chelsea enjoys writing, and has written and produced a film and several monologues. She is currently writing a feature film. www.chelseaclark.us

Danny McWilliams

Danny McWilliams has been an actor with Manhattan Repertory Theatre since 2016 appearing in many of their productions. He also has performed with The Gallery Players in Brooklyn in The Black Box One-Act play festivals for the past four years. He hosts a stand-up comedy show at The Duplex, New York’s legendary Piano Bar in Greenwich Village.

Ryan Skinner

Ryan is a playwright and screenwriter that tends to write plays that focus on simple, raw human themes that are also told in a very raw and simple way. These works also focus heavily on the everyday, slice of life things that connect us as people and hopefully more often than not make us better as a people.

Devin Romero

Devin Romero is an actor currently based in New York City, originally from Edinburg, TX. He studied acting at UTRGV (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) before moving to NY to pursue further opportunities. He is now a recent graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School (Class of 2020) and looks forward to the future of his acting career, both on stage and in front of the camera.

Chloe Webster

Chloe Webster found her love for performing at a young age when she started dance classes at Jacqueline Crawford's School of Dance in her hometown Kinross, Scotland. She moved to New York City at the age of 19, where she continued her studies in Musical Theatre, performing in plays and musicals in New York and the U.K. She has television and film credits including the PBS period drama Indian Summers. She is very grateful to her family and fiancé Manny for their love and support.

Phil Way

Phil is a playwright/actor/director residing in Brooklyn. His work has been produced at various venues in NYC including Manhattan Rep, The Players Theatre, The PIT Loft, and The Theatre at St. Clements, as well as Old Library Theatre and the Burgdorff Center in NJ. He is thrilled to return to live theatre with the premiere of The Twila Zone.

Katherine Elliot

Katherine Elliot (SAG-AFTRA) Cofounder/Actor/Producer-Wild Banshee. Former producer/performer-The Tempest Ladies (The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Off-Broadway producer/performer (Sammy’s Bowery Follies, Dog Sees God). Producer/performer (Paulette Goddard) Hannah, Can You Hear Me? - Best Arts Film, Cannes Festival. Director-The One And Only Amanda Palmer...,45 Coffee Dates, The Deed Is Done). Served on the Board of Directors for The League of Professional Theatre Women.

Glenora Blackshire

Glenora Blackshire is a director of stage and screen. She has two Emmy nominations for her work as camera person for the CBS-NY television show Toni on New York.

Coni Koepfinger

Winner of the 2021 Olwen Wymark Theatre Award by the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, Coni Koepfinger is the host of AIRPLAY, a weekly virtual theatre program now in its 12th season that brings the voices of artists, actors, playwrights from all over the world together. Also via new media, Koepfinger has created DETERMINED WOMEN, a monthly feature that interviews women who share stories to encourage and inspire. In addition to teaching theatre and composition at prominent universities like Carnegie Mellon, Penn State and Point Park University, Koepfinger is an internationally published and produced playwright, poet, and librettist. Coni is a Media Advisor for the Lifeboat Foundation who recently published her play, Get the Message in their Visions of the Future anthology 2016; a contributing writer for the Center of Conscious Creativity in LA; a Member of The Dramatists Guild, and ; a former board member of the International Center for Women Playwrights; and the League of Professional Theatre Women. Recent work includes three new powerful pieces with her writing partner Joe Izen: including Eve of Beltane -a fresh look at political corruption in the face of ancient Celtic mythology that was given a 29 hr AEA staged reading at Broadway Bound Festival (2019),; Schoolhouse -an ultramodern musical that takes the young victim of a school shooting through a magical journey into an imaginary schoolhouse to find compassion and joy; and the new age musical, Kingdom Come, where technology meets its match in matchmaking with TED, the world's first transhuman who falls in love with boss only to reveal a bigger, brighter picture for all humanity. She has written well over 40 plays, short stories, books and commissions such as Takin’ It Back a ten-minute play for THE ME TOO PROJECT in Harlem, and Playing House a commissioned one-act about Bella Abzug for the UNTOLD STORIES OF JEWISH WOMEN and Playing Fate which was accepted for New Blood Series at Theatre for the New City. In 2020 Koepfinger's work virtually all over, with a new full-length, My Dinner with Mary, which was read online for The Producer’s Circle in March, and was recently streamed live from The Player’s Club in NYC. It will be produced at Theatre for the New City in their 2023 season. Simon Says, won placement in PLAYBILL’S Virtual Theatre Festival 2020 and is slated for Manhattan Rep’s STORIES film competition in 2021. In the NYC pipeline, JOSIE IN THE BARDO will open at The Chain Theatre in April 2022. WEBSITES: https://newplayexchange.org/users/7796/coni-koepfinger https://eveofbeltane.com/ https://livefromthebardo.com/

Blake McAlister

Blake McAlister took to the road, dreaming overnight from Nashville to Chinatown on the heels of Hurricane Sandy. Thirty-two dollars in their pocket and a bus ticket, gifted from an ex-lover, they arrived as the city skyline turned grey. Behind them was the raging determination of twenty or more burning bridges, ahead, NYC's famed queer nightlife opening it's sequined-clad arms to this budding artist. Now, Blake is with their partner of five years and has become a working actor. Maintaining an Instagram following of over 1K and a shared second floor apartment in a brownstone located reasonably close to a Trader Joe's.

Julia Genoveva

Julia Genoveva recently directed, produced and acted in the play "Bernice" by Susan Glaspell, as Margaret Pierce through her production company, Genoveva Productions. Then she directed and produced two plays in the New York Theater Festival: Winterfest, "Grey Spectrum" by Julia Genoveva, and "Reunion," by Gus Ferrari. Finally, Julia was thrilled to be part of the reading "Bonhoeffer:The Last Days" by Tom Romano, directed by Alan Baxter, as Maria Von Wedemeyer and she is excited to be part of the staged production later this year. To contact Julia and keep up with her latest projects, please visit www.juliagenoveva. Also you can email her at: juliagenoveva@gmail.com.

Laurie Sammeth

Laurie Sammeth is delighted to be on stage again in a fun play with a wonderful team. NYC stage appearances include Marianna and the Wild Boars (Manhattan Rep), The Running (Latea Theater), What Shall We Do with Dawn? (St. Jean’s & Manhattan Rep) Express Train and OMG, Chopsticks! (Players Theatre) Gifted, Halls of Importance (Hudson Guild), Is That All They Wrote, Transit Tales (St. Jean’s), Jeanie & May (Theater for New City), 28 Marchant Avenue, Shades of Blue, Lilliom and The Curious Savage. Film and other credits, reels and contact info can be found at www.lauriesammeth.com

Dave Silberger

Dave Silberger has been seen working in several Manhattan Rep productions, most recently in The Pick-Up and Kalispell. He has done theater in exotic locations such as Chicago & Hoboken, as well as performing across the country at Renaissance Festivals as a member of the Sturdy Beggars Mud Show troupe. He dedicates his performance tonight to the memory of his life partner, Florence.

Brian Michael O’Neill

Brian Michael O’Neill is an actor and playwright from Yonkers, New York. His credits include The Annihilation of Je$$ie (Atlantic Theatre Company/Dir. Ryan Dobrin), A Sketch of New York (The Producer’s Club/Dir. Joe Dinozzi) and the short film Friendly (indie short/Dir. Matthew Panepinto). His plays include The Bomb, Sal and his Momma, The Portrait of Elliott West, and his most recent work 93 East 4th Street. His plays have been produced and performed at The Tank Theatre, The 13th Street Repertory Theatre, The Manhattan Repertory Theatre, The Hudson Guild Theatre, and SUNY Purchase. Brian Michael O’Neill earned a bachelor’s degree in Playwriting and Screenwriting from SUNY Purchase. Brian Michael O’Neill is a graduate from the Atlantic Theatre Company’s Acting School’s evening conservatory.

Robert Kirkendall

Robert Kirkendall is from San Jose, CA, presently lives in Santa Cruz, and has worked a number of jobs over the years to support his writing habit. He directed several of his short plays at Community Television of Santa Cruz as live broadcasts, and was a member of the Briefly Scene playwriting workshop. His full length workplace drama Dermalogic was presented online as a live staged reading by Theater for the New City’s On the Air series, and the opening scene of his full length comedy Electric Serenade was performed online for Rachel Love’s Airplay ‘22. Most recently he cowrote the screenplay for Twenty which is currently being directed by Hilary Davidson for Nineteen85 Films, and his original screenplay Leaving Paradise has been gaining notice by various film festivals on the Film Freeway. Funhouse is Kirkendall’s first play to be performed live in New York and is looking forward to seeing more of his work performed in NYC.

Ken Wolf

Ken Wolf is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan Rep and the author of over 20 plays. He has also directed over 100 productions including The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Three Sisters, The Eyes of Love, The Match Game, Tales of Terror, Men, Le Cygne, The Living Room, Dirty Linen, Past Perfect, and the orignal production of The Bigot by Gabi and Eva Mor As Artistic Director at Manhattan Repertory Theatre, he has produced over 1000 full length plays and over 6000 short pieces. Ken hosts The Playwriting Podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and most podcast apps, which was voted the #1 Playwriting podcast in the world. Ken is also a playwriting coach and a Play Production “Doctor.” His One Man play The People in my Hips was hailed by Martin Denton of nytheatre.com as being “unlike any theatre piece I have ever seen.” And Lise Avery of Anything Goes!! Internationally Syndicated Radio said “THE PEOPLE IN MY HIPS is one of the most extraordinary pieces of theatre I have seen on or Off-Broadway in years. Mr. Wolf’s one-man performance is exquisite, inspiring, courageous and beautifully constructed.” Ken also received rave reviews with his amazing 8lb dog Roma Pierro-Wolf, in his play DAD AND THE DOG, New York City’s first One Man One Dog show. He is a passionate teacher and creative artist. He lives with the incredible Jennifer Pierro and the adorable Roma Pierro-Wolf in Manhattan.