ward Team
Isabelle Chirls (Assistant Director/Stage Directions, they & she) is a director, producer, and intimacy coordinator. With an ethos of theatre as consensual practice, they particularly enjoy collaborating on new work that uplifts queer narratives. Recent credits include Leave if No Response (Director/Producer, The Tank) and you don't have to do anything (Associate Director, dir. Ryan Dobrin, HERE Arts Center). Isabelle holds a BA from Wesleyan University in Theatre and English, and she received High Honors and the Outreach & Community Service Prize in Theatre. IG @isabelle_chirls isabellechirls.com
Marie Donna Davis (Zzz) Originally form Silver Spring, Maryland, Marie Donna Davis graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Social Work, and received her acting training at the Atlantic Theater Evening Conservatory in New York City. Recent projects include: Essie (Winter Collection 2024 Campaign) Legally Blonde The Musical (Assistant Choreogrpher/ NJIT ,NJ) Carol’s Daughter (Color Purple Campaign) Pretending to Fly (Francis/Edinburgh Fringe Festival), campy fanfiction web series, The Hunted: NYCSS ( Campbell/Best SciFi Web Series LA Fest) Nominations: Best Female Fight and Best Unarmed Fight (Urban Action Film Festival). Marie Donna henjoys the feel of a katana and a good rum-based cocktail in hand. Rarely at the same time.
Kevin Gill (Pompis) Kevin is an actor, writer, and all around super chill guy (like really chill). @theofficialkevingill on Instagram
Luli Gomez Teruel (Cogo) is a Brooklyn-based actor. luligomezteruel.com
Liat Graf (Pipi) is a Brooklyn-based actor. She has performed at and with Williamstown, Breaking the Binary, La MaMa Galleria, The Tank, The PIT, Columbia MFA, and Jalopy Theatre. Liat has been a member of Mercury Store's acting ensemble since 2022. MFA: University of Iowa. BA: Clark University. liatgraf.com
Morgan Grambo (Dramaturg, she/her) is a dramaturg, producer, writer, and educator dedicated to the production of new plays. Based in Queens, she has worked with Roundabout Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, Athena Project, University of Iowa, Salve Regina University, and The Juilliard School, in addition to supporting artistic and new play development efforts at several organizations across the country. Morgan received her MFA in Dramaturgy and a graduate certificate in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Iowa. www.morgangrambo.com
Josue Zeus Guerrero aka JosueZ (Sierdo) is an actor & music artist based in Brooklyn New York. He graduated from Brooklyn College back in 2020 where he received his B.F.A in acting and has continued to work in various stages in NYC since. Previous roles include ROY in The Doom That Came to the Burger Slime, presented at The Tank. CHORUS/REFUGEE in The Refugees, presented in A.R.T N.Y, & JUAN in Saguaros, presented at JACK. When he is not acting JosueZ is making music. You can listen to his latest single ''Still'' out on all streaming platforms. Josue would love to thank Jarek Pastor & Erica Barnes for this incredibly fun opportunity and congratulate the cast and crew for putting together this outstanding project in such short time. You can check out JosueZ.com to learn more about Josue and his work.
Annie Hoeg (A) is a theater maker living in Brooklyn. Recently seen in Shot List (Baryshnikov) and What a World! What a World! (Prelude). Recent wardrobe credits includes work at Encores!, Playwrights Horizons, and The Atlantic. BFA: NYU
Courteney Leggett (Stage Manager, they/them) is a Production Manager and Stage Manager who has worked Off-Broadway, Regionally, on Festivals, and Tours. Their passion is in helping teams develop new works. They have a B.F.A. in Stage Management from the University of Miami, FL. NYC Credits Include: For You, Paige; Baghdaddy; Ideation; GIRL Shakes Loose; Seen/By Everyone; A Power Play; Boy; The Biggest Valley; Into the Woods; DirectorFest; NYC Fringe Festival; American Realness Festival. Regional Credits Include: Seared; Trouble Cometh; Sid the Science Kid; The Donkey Show; Girls vs. Boys; The Nutcracker; Our Town; Ayikodans; Miami Made Festival; Jazz Roots.
Annie McCoy (Toto)
Annie is an actress from Orlando who started with a focus on Musical Theatre. However, she developed a passion for physical theatre while attending Circle in the Square. Post graduation she continued to train with Danyon Davis, specifically in Creative Physicality. @anniemmccoy on Instagram
Michael Ortiz (o, he/him) is a multi-hyphenate theater artist hailing from the state of Florida. He is one of the Co-Artistic Directors of the Brooklyn-based Breaking & Entering Theater Collective, as well as one of the co-founders of The Fled Collective. He currently produces and hosts SERIALS, a late-night episodic short play competition series at The Tank. Michael is passionate about the cultivation of new work and collaborating with underrepresented artists, particularly queer artists and artists of color. He is an avid gamer, a home cook, a lover of all things spooky, and possibly the missing link (to what? we don’t know). Hit him up if you ever want to talk D&D or learn to play the spoons.
Dakota Parobek (Music & Sound, they/them) is a theatre artist based in Iowa City. Their work has been published by Imagined Theatres and produced around the midwest. Their play Smile Medicine (dir. Paul Kalina) premiered in 2021 at University of Iowa. Recent sound design includes Everybody (dir. Jacob Titus, Riverside Theatre), ward (dir. Jarek Pastor, The Playwrights Center), and Brönte: The World Without (dir. Juliana Frey-Méndez, Riverside Theatre). Current projects include a large paper-mache lobster claw, and American Fermata, a play about rehearsing the death of capitalism. Dakota holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Say hello at dakotaparobek.com and read their plays on New Play Exchange.
Jarek Pastor (Playwright, they/them) is a theatermaker with a focus on play composition, dramaturgy, and directing. Their work moves with a tonal dynamism to enact absurdist portraits of social systems from a mixed race/bilingual/transnational perspective. The result is a theater of being more than the expected doing—of presence and acquaintance more than deed and explanation. This practice is driven by an insistence on finding more communal ways of living beyond the closed horizon of imperialism in all its forms. They hold an MFA from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop and a BA in Playwriting from Columbia College Chicago. Jarek Pastor is Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellow.
Peanut Ricky (Herald Puppet Design) is an Iowa based painter and builder, specializing in large-scale portraiture, papier-mâché and wooden constructions. Obsessed with bathroom floors, and the creation of anti-monuments, their work is an uncanny mixture of violence, fear, and fun. A nightmare kitsch aesthetic derived from a childhood of building haunted houses with their mother. Peanut recently completed an apprenticeship with Bread and Puppet Theater, and is currently preparing for asolo multi-media installation titled HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY, FREE, AND NO ONE WILL GO AWAY UNSATISFIED! scheduled to open at the University of Iowa in October. They would like to thank Jarek Pastor, Dakota Parobek, and Lyree Zubrod, for letting them and helping them build weird dudes on sticks.
Ren Pepitone (Servant) has worked on productions in New York, Maryland, and Arkansas as an actor, writer, deviser, and dramaturg.
Erica Wray (Director, she/her) is a Brooklyn-based new play director, Laban Movement Analyst, and Intimacy Director. She spent 15 years in Chicago and served as Co-Founder of Knife & Fork, a theatre company dedicated to social practice around food and body politics, and as Co-Artistic Director of Blank Line Collective, a movement-based, devising theater company. Erica holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Iowa. She is an associate member of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
The Interstitial is a producing partnership between Erica Wray and Morgan Grambo dedicated to amplifying exciting new works by theatremakers interested in creating uniquely compelling theatre events that frequently fall “in-between” our understanding of traditional new work development. The Interstitial meets each piece we encounter at its point of development, which is often post-reading(s) or in need of an in-room workshop collaboration to answer a specific question. New plays can often flounder in the spaces between generation | exploration | presentation. We are interested in providing resources to embrace these interstitial moments in artistic development and support the playwrights in these unmoored periods in a project’s lifespan. Our programs include readings, workshops, works-in-progress showings, and productions of new plays. In February 2023, we produced a staged reading of Eric Marlin’s Denial as part of the Dark Night Series with A.R.T./New York. In August of 2023, we produced a short-run production of In the Castle of Eternal Sunset: A Module for Ten 0th Level Characters by Charles Green at The Brick Aux. www.theinterstitialnyc.com
Isabelle Chirls (Assistant Director/Stage Directions, they & she) is a director, producer, and intimacy coordinator. With an ethos of theatre as consensual practice, they particularly enjoy collaborating on new work that uplifts queer narratives. Recent credits include Leave if No Response (Director/Producer, The Tank) and you don't have to do anything (Associate Director, dir. Ryan Dobrin, HERE Arts Center). Isabelle holds a BA from Wesleyan University in Theatre and English, and she received High Honors and the Outreach & Community Service Prize in Theatre. IG @isabelle_chirls isabellechirls.com
Marie Donna Davis (Zzz) Originally form Silver Spring, Maryland, Marie Donna Davis graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Social Work, and received her acting training at the Atlantic Theater Evening Conservatory in New York City. Recent projects include: Essie (Winter Collection 2024 Campaign) Legally Blonde The Musical (Assistant Choreogrpher/ NJIT ,NJ) Carol’s Daughter (Color Purple Campaign) Pretending to Fly (Francis/Edinburgh Fringe Festival), campy fanfiction web series, The Hunted: NYCSS ( Campbell/Best SciFi Web Series LA Fest) Nominations: Best Female Fight and Best Unarmed Fight (Urban Action Film Festival). Marie Donna henjoys the feel of a katana and a good rum-based cocktail in hand. Rarely at the same time.
Kevin Gill (Pompis) Kevin is an actor, writer, and all around super chill guy (like really chill). @theofficialkevingill on Instagram
Luli Gomez Teruel (Cogo) is a Brooklyn-based actor. luligomezteruel.com
Liat Graf (Pipi) is a Brooklyn-based actor. She has performed at and with Williamstown, Breaking the Binary, La MaMa Galleria, The Tank, The PIT, Columbia MFA, and Jalopy Theatre. Liat has been a member of Mercury Store's acting ensemble since 2022. MFA: University of Iowa. BA: Clark University. liatgraf.com
Morgan Grambo (Dramaturg, she/her) is a dramaturg, producer, writer, and educator dedicated to the production of new plays. Based in Queens, she has worked with Roundabout Theatre Company, Hartford Stage, Athena Project, University of Iowa, Salve Regina University, and The Juilliard School, in addition to supporting artistic and new play development efforts at several organizations across the country. Morgan received her MFA in Dramaturgy and a graduate certificate in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Iowa. www.morgangrambo.com
Josue Zeus Guerrero aka JosueZ (Sierdo) is an actor & music artist based in Brooklyn New York. He graduated from Brooklyn College back in 2020 where he received his B.F.A in acting and has continued to work in various stages in NYC since. Previous roles include ROY in The Doom That Came to the Burger Slime, presented at The Tank. CHORUS/REFUGEE in The Refugees, presented in A.R.T N.Y, & JUAN in Saguaros, presented at JACK. When he is not acting JosueZ is making music. You can listen to his latest single ''Still'' out on all streaming platforms. Josue would love to thank Jarek Pastor & Erica Barnes for this incredibly fun opportunity and congratulate the cast and crew for putting together this outstanding project in such short time. You can check out JosueZ.com to learn more about Josue and his work.
Annie Hoeg (A) is a theater maker living in Brooklyn. Recently seen in Shot List (Baryshnikov) and What a World! What a World! (Prelude). Recent wardrobe credits includes work at Encores!, Playwrights Horizons, and The Atlantic. BFA: NYU
Courteney Leggett (Stage Manager, they/them) is a Production Manager and Stage Manager who has worked Off-Broadway, Regionally, on Festivals, and Tours. Their passion is in helping teams develop new works. They have a B.F.A. in Stage Management from the University of Miami, FL. NYC Credits Include: For You, Paige; Baghdaddy; Ideation; GIRL Shakes Loose; Seen/By Everyone; A Power Play; Boy; The Biggest Valley; Into the Woods; DirectorFest; NYC Fringe Festival; American Realness Festival. Regional Credits Include: Seared; Trouble Cometh; Sid the Science Kid; The Donkey Show; Girls vs. Boys; The Nutcracker; Our Town; Ayikodans; Miami Made Festival; Jazz Roots.
Annie McCoy (Toto)
Annie is an actress from Orlando who started with a focus on Musical Theatre. However, she developed a passion for physical theatre while attending Circle in the Square. Post graduation she continued to train with Danyon Davis, specifically in Creative Physicality. @anniemmccoy on Instagram
Michael Ortiz (o, he/him) is a multi-hyphenate theater artist hailing from the state of Florida. He is one of the Co-Artistic Directors of the Brooklyn-based Breaking & Entering Theater Collective, as well as one of the co-founders of The Fled Collective. He currently produces and hosts SERIALS, a late-night episodic short play competition series at The Tank. Michael is passionate about the cultivation of new work and collaborating with underrepresented artists, particularly queer artists and artists of color. He is an avid gamer, a home cook, a lover of all things spooky, and possibly the missing link (to what? we don’t know). Hit him up if you ever want to talk D&D or learn to play the spoons.
Dakota Parobek (Music & Sound, they/them) is a theatre artist based in Iowa City. Their work has been published by Imagined Theatres and produced around the midwest. Their play Smile Medicine (dir. Paul Kalina) premiered in 2021 at University of Iowa. Recent sound design includes Everybody (dir. Jacob Titus, Riverside Theatre), ward (dir. Jarek Pastor, The Playwrights Center), and Brönte: The World Without (dir. Juliana Frey-Méndez, Riverside Theatre). Current projects include a large paper-mache lobster claw, and American Fermata, a play about rehearsing the death of capitalism. Dakota holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Say hello at dakotaparobek.com and read their plays on New Play Exchange.
Jarek Pastor (Playwright, they/them) is a theatermaker with a focus on play composition, dramaturgy, and directing. Their work moves with a tonal dynamism to enact absurdist portraits of social systems from a mixed race/bilingual/transnational perspective. The result is a theater of being more than the expected doing—of presence and acquaintance more than deed and explanation. This practice is driven by an insistence on finding more communal ways of living beyond the closed horizon of imperialism in all its forms. They hold an MFA from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop and a BA in Playwriting from Columbia College Chicago. Jarek Pastor is Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellow.
Peanut Ricky (Herald Puppet Design) is an Iowa based painter and builder, specializing in large-scale portraiture, papier-mâché and wooden constructions. Obsessed with bathroom floors, and the creation of anti-monuments, their work is an uncanny mixture of violence, fear, and fun. A nightmare kitsch aesthetic derived from a childhood of building haunted houses with their mother. Peanut recently completed an apprenticeship with Bread and Puppet Theater, and is currently preparing for asolo multi-media installation titled HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY, FREE, AND NO ONE WILL GO AWAY UNSATISFIED! scheduled to open at the University of Iowa in October. They would like to thank Jarek Pastor, Dakota Parobek, and Lyree Zubrod, for letting them and helping them build weird dudes on sticks.
Ren Pepitone (Servant) has worked on productions in New York, Maryland, and Arkansas as an actor, writer, deviser, and dramaturg.
Erica Wray (Director, she/her) is a Brooklyn-based new play director, Laban Movement Analyst, and Intimacy Director. She spent 15 years in Chicago and served as Co-Founder of Knife & Fork, a theatre company dedicated to social practice around food and body politics, and as Co-Artistic Director of Blank Line Collective, a movement-based, devising theater company. Erica holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Iowa. She is an associate member of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
The Interstitial is a producing partnership between Erica Wray and Morgan Grambo dedicated to amplifying exciting new works by theatremakers interested in creating uniquely compelling theatre events that frequently fall “in-between” our understanding of traditional new work development. The Interstitial meets each piece we encounter at its point of development, which is often post-reading(s) or in need of an in-room workshop collaboration to answer a specific question. New plays can often flounder in the spaces between generation | exploration | presentation. We are interested in providing resources to embrace these interstitial moments in artistic development and support the playwrights in these unmoored periods in a project’s lifespan. Our programs include readings, workshops, works-in-progress showings, and productions of new plays. In February 2023, we produced a staged reading of Eric Marlin’s Denial as part of the Dark Night Series with A.R.T./New York. In August of 2023, we produced a short-run production of In the Castle of Eternal Sunset: A Module for Ten 0th Level Characters by Charles Green at The Brick Aux. www.theinterstitialnyc.com