THE KIT: MADE BY MARTHA

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Meet the Company

Deborah Hedwall

Martha

Deborah Hedwall has been doing new plays in New York and regionally for 30 years. Most recently GNIT. @ TFANA directed by Oliver Butler. Most recent Film and Television Higher Ground, Worth, Mare of Easttown, Citadel, Invasion, and has been on just about every tv show that has shot in NY. She also has maintained an acting studio, dhco, in midtown Manhattan for 20 years.

Katie Fabel

Marty

Honored to be participating in this on-going and vital conversation. BROADWAY: Hangmen. WEST END: Sound of Music. OFF BROADWAY: The Shaughraun, Ernest In Love, It’s a Wonderful Life, Burial at Thebes, A Childs Christmas in Wales (all at Irish Repertory Theatre), Belle of Belfast (Cherry Lane), Mary Broome(The Mint). REGIONAL THEATRE: Shakespeare Theatre Company(DC), Shakespeare Theatre of NJ(5 Seasons), The Old Globe, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Pioneer, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Penguin Rep, St Louis Rep, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. OTHER UK CREDITS: Wind in the Willows(National Theatre), La Boheme (Royal Albert Hall), Carmen (English National Opera), Arsenic & Old Lace (Tour). TV/FILM: The Loudest Voice (Showtime), Succession (HBO), Crimewatch (BBC), College Humor, "Low Hanging Fruit", "The Incoherants". VIDEOGAME: RDR2, Diablo 3. Katie is also a vocal coach, looper, songwriter & Intuitive Healer. Training: Royal Academy of Music, UCB, Mountview & The Knack. Website: katiefabel.com insta @katiefabel

Shawn Randall

Rudy Nimocks and others

Shawn Randall is an actor, poet, singer-songwriter, playwright, musician, freestyle emcee, and producer of Symphonics Live. He recently made his Broadway debut in the TONY-nominated play Between Riverside And Crazy as Common's understudy. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he has a band with Diana Oh, Steve Boyer, William Jackson Harper, Bobby Moreno, and Jeff Biehl called The US Open. Check out their debut album, We Are The US Open. Shawn is also a member of LAByrinth Theater and Ensemble Studio Theatre. Visit www.shawnalfredrandall.com

Lou Liberatore

Louis Vitullo and others

A Member Artist (Acting) of The Ensemble Studio Theatre since 2011, Lou currently serves on The Board of Directors and was a former Co-chair and member of the Members Council. He was part of the Transition Team which helped create a new template for hiring future Artistic and Executive Staff as we continue to transition into a more equitable, diverse, inclusive and just theatre. At EST Lou has participated in various projects including; The Marathon of One-Act Plays, Youngblood Brunches, Asking 4 Trouble, Members Projects plus various readings and presentations. Along with Dawn McGee and Kelli Lynn Harrison, Lou created FIRST BREW, a monthly event for writers to hear their work read (sometimes for the very first time). A Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominee for his portrayal of “Larry,” (alongside John Malkovich, Joan Allen and Jonathan Hogan), in Lanford Wilson’s BURN THIS, Lou re-created his role in London (along with Malkovich and Juliet Stephenson) as well. He made his Broadway debut in William M. Hoffman’s groundbreaking play, AS IS, (the first play about the AIDS crisis to premiere on Broadway) - both plays were directed by Marshall W. Mason and developed at the award-winning Circle Repertory Company where Lou began his career, starting as an intern and eventually becoming a longtime company member. Off-Broadway credits include; BRUISE & THORN (Pipeline Theatre Co./ART/NY Theatres), PREPAREDNESS (Bushwick Starr/HERE Arts Center), PARADISE LOST (FPA/Theatre Row), GOD SHOWS UP (Actors Temple), DANIEL’S HUSBAND (Westside Theatre, Primary Stages, Penguin Rep), ORPHEUS DESCENDING (Bartley/Glezos Productions), A CLASS ACT (New World Stages), A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Masterworks Theatre Co.), PUSHKIN (Sheen Center), ROCKET TO THE MOON (St. Clement’s), and has appeared at The Vineyard Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Lark and at the Orpheum, among others. Regional theatre credits include; ANGELS IN AMERICA Pt.1&2 (Actors Theatre of Louisville), INTELLIGENT HOMOSEXUAL’S GUIDE… (Berkeley Rep & Theatre J), 12 ANGRY MEN (Pioneer Theatre), THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK & THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON (Westport Playhouse), also appearing at the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival, Two River Theatre, the Alley Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and at Steppenwolf, among others. TV series credits include; “Law & Order: SVU,” “Law & Order,” “Blindspot,” “Deception,” “The Affair,” “The Good Wife,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Sex and the City,” “Who’s The Boss?,” “One Life to Live,” “Guiding Light,” “Another World” TV movies; “Tales of the City,” “Original Sin,” “She Was Marked for Murder,” “Op-Center,” “Combat Academy,” “Marked for Murder,” “If It’s Tuesday It Still Must Be Belgium.”

Desi Domo

Gail and others

Desi is a comedian, actor, and writer based in Brooklyn, NY. THEATRE credits include: UCB Theatre Maude Night, UCB Theatre Characters Welcome, BLANK! The Musical, and Scapin (Off-Broadway – Theatre Row). TV/FILM credits include: Inventing Anna (Netflix), Alternatino (Comedy Central), A Thousand and One (Sundance winner), and The Conjuring. She stars in Clown Parade, a character comedy podcast by Will Ferrell, Bowen Yang, and Matt Rogers — in which she singlehandedly wrote and performed four episodes entitled “The Me in Mysticism” all in character as narcissistic mystic, Katinka. See more of her characters and impressions on Instagram or Tiktok @desidomo and www.desidomo.com. Training: Davidson College (BA in Drama), The Accademia Dell’Arte (Commedia), Royal Shakespeare Company.

Curran Connor

Sam and others

Theater: Continuity (Manhattan Theater Club), The Way West (LAByrinth Theatre Co.), Kentucky, Dido of Idaho, What You Are Now, Linus and Murray, Zero, Pidgeon(Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go! (Ma-Yi Theater Co.). TV/Film: Deadbeat (Hulu), The Deuce (HBO), The Other Two (Comedy Central/HBO), High Maintenance (HBO), Jessica Jones (Netflix), Girls5Eva (Netflix), The Good Fight (CBS), Hello My Name is Doris (dir Michael Showalter). Improvisor at the Upright Citizens Brigade as part of ‘Harold Night’. Proud member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Janice Amaya

Sandy Bradford and others

Janice Amaya (they/them) is an actor, theatermaker, and educator. Recent theater credits: Lunch Bunch (The Play Company), Shhhh (Atlantic Theater Company), Mushroom (People’s Light Theater Co), Cartography (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Tell Them I’m Still Young (American Theater Group). Film: Patriot’s Day (Lionsgate, Dir. Peter Berg), Up North (Dir. Stefanie Abel Horowitz). They are a Co-Director at Pipeline Theatre Company and a founding member of The Hummm. MFA, Harvard University and the Moscow Art Theater.

arroyo monfiletto

Little M

arroyo monfiletto (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright and poet. arroyo’s work deals in themes of class struggle, homoeroticism, radical history, and hole theory. She is a 2022 FIFE Fellow with the Bechdel Project. Her play My Mother the Sun was featured as part of Premiere Stages Play Festival 2020, Teatro Vivo’s 2020 Austin Latinx New Play Festival, and The Echo Theatre’s 2019 National Young Playwrights in Residence.

Jeanne Dorsey

Playwright

Jeanne Dorsey is a New York based writer of plays, screenplays, teleplays, and essays. She was awarded a 2023 Marble House Project residency, a 2022 fellowship to Monson Arts in Monson Maine, the inaugural 2022 Room of One’s Own residency with the Bechdel Project, and a 2021 Sloan Commission, all in support of her play The Kit: Made by Martha. Her play A Little Bit of Forever received a 29-hour Equity workshop with the support of New Georges and was nominated by New Georges for the 2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her television pilot Highest and Best was a finalist for the Made in NY Writers Room television training program. Her play, Away Towards Home was nominated by George Street Playhouse for the 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn prize. It developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre and was included in the EST 2014 summer workshop series at The Space at Ryder Farm. Her play Footprints in The Snow was a semi-finalist for the 2017 Ashland New Play Festival. It was nominated by EST for the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn prize and was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill 2009 National Playwrights Conference. She wrote, directed and produced the short film Blood from a Stoner that screened at the Anthology Film Archives in New York and was an official selection in the 2015 Chain Film Festival, the 2014 Big Apple Film Festival, the 2014 FilmColumbia festival in Chatham, New York and the 2014 Hoboken International Film Festival. Blood From a Stoner is based on her play, which was produced by the Ensemble Studio Theatre in the 2009 EST Marathon of one-act plays. Other productions include: The Longbottom Way at The SoHo Playhouse, EST’s March Madness Festival and Apartment A Theatre, Los Angeles; The Soul Savers at Apartment A; Too Small to Drive at The Play Group, NY; Compliments to Amanda (finalist for the Heidemann Award) at Gilgamesh Theatre Group, NY; Stepping Out with Mr. Markham at New Georges. Her essay “Motherhood, Adoption, Ambivalence” is included in No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood published in April of 2013 by Seal Press. Her monologues have been published by Smith and Krauss, Heinemann Press and Applause Books. She has received fellowships to Fundación Valparaiso in Spain, Ragdale, the Santa Fe Art Institute, Ucross, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre Playwrights Unit, the Dramatists Guild, Honor Role* and is a New Georges Affiliated Artist. * HONOR ROLE is an action and advocacy group of women+ playwrights over 40 whose aim is to significantly increase our inclusion and representation on stage and in the theatrical canon.

Jackson Gay

Director

Jackson has directed at regional theatres from coast to coast and is the co-producing artistic director of New Neighborhood, which recently joined forces with Rattlestick and The Commissary to produce Why Would I Dare: The Trial of Crystal Mason. New Neighborhood also produced Filibustered and Unfiltered: America Reads the Mueller Report, which was featured everywhere, from the Los Angeles Times ("a live-theater summer sensation!") to Breitbart News ("the single most boring and pointless way to waste your time!"). Jackson holds an MFA in Directing from Yale School of Drama.

Kyra Bowie

Stage Manager

Kyra Bowie (Stage Manager) is a multi-hyphenate artist and the co-founder of Transcend Streaming. She is thrilled to be collaborating with Bechdel Project and to be a part of this incredible project. Select Credits: JUST TELL NO ONE (SM | Lincoln Center) THE ORCHARD with Jessica Hecht & Mikhail Baryshnikov (PSM | Arlekin Players Theatre) HAPPY LIFE (PSM | Walkerspace), SHOOTING CELEBRITIES (PSM | The Flea), OTHELLO (PSM | New Place Players), CAMP MORNING WOOD (PSM | AsylumNYC), Play On Podcasts (Coordinating Producer). NYU Tisch alum. Proud AEA Member. Filled with never-ending gratitude. @KyraBowie www.KyraBowie.com

Violet Woundy

Assistant Stage Manager

Violet Woundy (she/they) is a stage manager, director, and creative producer, graduating with a dual BFA/MA from The New School in the Dramatic Arts, Arts Management & Entrepreneurship this month. As an Assistant Stage Manager, she’s most recently worked with Hudson Classical Theater Company, Inspiration Performing Arts Company, The Public, and The New School. www.violetwoundy.com

Multimedia

About The Play

Commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project, and developed with support from Bechdel Project’s year-long ROO Residency, The Kit: Made by Martha explores the life and work of Martha Goddard, inventor of the first standardized rape kit.

While working a crisis hotline for runaway teenage girls in 1972 Chicago, Goddard ponders how rape could be investigated as an actual crime rather than a made-up story. At a time when sexual violence in America is rarely prosecuted, her innovative thinking sets her on a path to create a powerful scientific procedure that could transform criminal forensics and bring justice to countless victims of sexual assault.

Dorsey's play deftly weaves Goddard's obsession with crafting miniatures (like those Goddard saw at the Chicago Art Institute) and her journey through the gritty world of sex crimes, the Chicago PD, a surprising alliance with Hugh Hefner's Playboy Foundation, and her own rape later in life which she ironically never reported.

The Kit: Made by Martha is a powerful reminder that even when we are flawed and seemingly unremarkable, we can still change the world.

A Note From The Playwright, Jeanne Dorsey

The Playwright would like to thank:

• Director, Jackson Gay and this awesome cast: Janice Amaya, Curran Connor, Desi Domo, Katie Fabel, Deborah Hedwall, Lou Liberatore, Arroyo Monfiletto, and Shawn Randall
• Mary Dreiser, Cynthia Gehry, Scott Goddard, Christy Hefner, Pagan Kennedy, Catherine Ott, and Margaret Pokorney.
• Physicians Keesandra Agenor, Brigitte Alexander, Moira McCarty, and Mary Ryan.
• The Bechdel Project, Ensemble Studio Theatre, EST Playwrights Unit, Marble House, Monson Arts, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
• Linsay Firman and Graeme Gillis.

Almost a year ago to the date, Maria Aparo and Jens Rasmussen birthed baby Luca. They have also been mid-wives in the birth of The Kit: Made by Martha. Thank you for selecting me as the inaugural Bechdel Project ROO Resident. Your encouragement and belief in me and this project has been immeasurable.

About Bechdel Project and the ROO

BECHDEL PROJECT (Maria Aparo, Lucy Flournoy, & Jens Rasmussen, Co-Creative Directors) is a non-profit arts incubator dedicated to feminist storytelling. Because the stories we tell don't just reflect our culture, they shape it. Programs include script Development through their ROO Residency and FIFE Fellowships, Education offerings of their  “life-changing” workshops and residencies for universities across the country, and Advocacy that supports the anti-sexism work of other organizations through various partnerships and Bechdel Project’s free community space program.

The Room of One's Own (ROO) Writer's Residency - takes its name both from the space it provides for the resident artist and the 1929 book by Virginia Woolf.

In "A Room of One's Own" Woolf wrote, “fictitious women, are too simple — contrary to the living, breathing, complex women of real life, (they) are almost always depicted only in their relation to men.” 

The one-year residency supports the creation of new work for the stage or screen by feminist writers (of any intersection) who are creating new work that is in line with the Bechdel Project mission.

The residency is largely directed by the writer themselves, and provides access to the spaces in Brooklyn and Berlin for writing, research, workshops, and readings as well as the Bechdel Project staff who provide logistical, dramaturgical, and producorial support.

About The Ensemble Studio Theatre & The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The Ensemble Studio Theatre (Estefanía Fadul & Graeme Gillis, Co-Artistic Directors) is a not-for-profit theatre focused on developing and producing original, provocative, and authentic new plays to engage and challenge our audiences. Founded in 1968 by Curt Dempster, EST has grown to a dynamic community of over 650 artists and has a prolific and energetic history of discovering and nurturing new voices and supporting artists throughout their creative lives. EST is committed to collaborative processes and is dedicated to inclusion across all aspects of identity and perspective by acknowledging and working to end systemic marginalization and oppression at all levels of the organization.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director) is a New York-based philanthropic organization that makes grants for research and education in science, technology, and economics. Sloan’s program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, aims to integrate the two cultures of science and the humanities by supporting an array of original works such as books, radio, television, film, theater, and new media. In addition to EST’s flagship initiative, Sloan’s theater program supports the Manhattan Theatre Club, the National Theatre in England, and L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity, an ongoing series of the best science-themed radio plays. For more information visit sloan.org or follow @SloanPublic on Twitter or Facebook.

The EST/Sloan Project (Graeme Gillis, Program Director; Linsay Firman, Associate Director), a pioneering collaboration between the Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is designed to stimulate artists to create credible and compelling new theatrical works that explore the worlds of science, technology, and economics and to challenge existing stereotypes of scientists and engineers in popular culture. Since its inception in 1998, the EST/Sloan Project has commissioned, developed, and produced over 350 staged plays involving over 1,000 playwrights, actors, choreographers, composers, and theatre companies nationwide.