WHO’S WHO in YES WE CAN

Daniella Shoshan (Playwright) is a New York (formerly of New Jersey) playwright who completed her MFA at Columbia University in May 2010. Recent projects include: Ya Heard Me (Samuel French OOB Festival, dir. Grant Boyd); They Call Him Young Lou (MFA Thesis Productions, dir. Pirrone Yousefzadeh); Pluck & Tenacity (MFA Ten Minute Play Festival at Second Stage, dir. Kim Weild); Jack Perry Is Alive [and Dating] (ANT FEST ’09, Ars Nova); Tell It To Me Slowly (FringeNYC ‘09). She has been mentored by Kia Corthron and Stephen Adly Guirgis.  She bakes crazy delicious cookies.

Alec Strum (Director, Producing Artistic Director) is currently the Associate Literary Manager at Playwrights Horizons. DPP: Producer/Director, Yes We Can (upcoming); Associate Producer/ Dramaturge, The Realm, Pink!. Broadway: Assistant Director: After Miss Julie (Roundabout, dir. Mark Brokaw). Off-Broadway: Assistant Director: The Language Archive (Roundabout/Brokaw). Off-off: Director: The Rut Fugue (Reading, DPP and LAByrinth); Say It’s Raining (Strawberry Festival, best dir. nom); Marzipan Landing; Fancy (reading, Potomac Theatre Project, Atlantic Stage 2); Writer: How to Stage a Proper Revolution (PTP); Actor: Love Money: A Recession Rock Musical (Les Zeux), Somewhere in the Pacific, No End of Blame (PTP). Regional: Actor: No End of Blame (PTP, Olney Theatre). Children’s theater: Writer: Big Bad, The Big Bad Musical and The Southfield Stories.

Duane Cooper (Rabbi Q). Duane would first like to say how fortunate and excited he feels to be a part of this project. Among his most memorable roles are Truffaldino in The Servant of Two Masters, Scar Tissue in Marisol, and Tyrone in Stress Positions. He is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse. All his love to Fi.

Makeda Declet (Black Woman) is a recent graduate of NYU-Tisch having studied at the Experimental Theater Wing, the Classical Studio, and the International Theater Workshop–Amsterdam. Recent credits include Sherelle in Da Kink in My Hair and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Thank you to my beautiful family for your perpetual love and support.

Judith Dry (Jewish Woman). Off-Broadway: Dear Edwina (Daryl Roth Kids Theatre), The Europeans (PTP/Atlantic Stage 2). New York: I'm From Outer Space (ARS Nova Ant Fest 2010), These Seven Sicknesses (Exit, Pursued by a Bear), and Love Money (FringeNYC 2009). Judith is also a singer songwriter. She performs under the name Ladyfingers.

Gina Marie Jamieson (White Girl Nanny). New York credits include Gate B23 (New York Fringe), Epicene ((re:)Directions Theatre Co.), Third (The Bendheim), Ruby's Story (13th St. Repertory), as well as readings and workshop productions for Alchemy Theatre Co., The Attic Theatre Co., Manhattan Shakespeare, (re:)Directions, DreamStem, Emerging Artist's Theatre. BFA Boston University, further training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Please visit www.ginamariejamieson.com!

Meera Rohit Kumbhani (Indian Mother) recently graduated with an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. Credits include As You Like It and Twelfth Night (Classic Stage Company), vanya (2 Great Jones), Pray, Mantid (collective: unconscious), Caucasian Chalk Circle, King Lear, and The House of Bernarda Alba (Columbia University). She also holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley in both Theatre and Neurobiology.

Jeffrey Omura (Jesus) is a proud graduate of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama. New York: Shakespeare in the Park's Romeo and Juliet directed by Michael Greif; The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks by Joe Iconis; Hamlet, starring Alec Baldwin. Regional: Take Me Out (barebones productions). Film: Sex & the City 2. Television: "White Collar", "Georgetown" (pilot), "Damages", "The Beautiful Life", "Gossip Girl". Thanks to my folks at Abrams and Howard Entertainment. www.jeffreyomura.com

Stephen Stout (11-Year Old White Boy). Recent NYC credits include The Spanish Tragedy (Red Bull Revelation Reading), La Boheme (spoken) (The Cell), and various productions and readings at The Flea Theater. Stephen is the co-producer of the sold out late night hit #serials@theflea and runs The Old Vic Theatre's New Voices Network in NYC.

Dax Valdes (Chinese Man). With Down Payment: The Realm (movement). As actor, recent credits include: Border Towns (HERE), Rumors, Triumph of Love (Millbrook Playhouse), 3 Sisters (OVNV, dir. Eve Best). He also works as a choreographer, director and teaching artist. Member of Leviathan Lab. Grateful to be along for the ride!

Ronald Washington (Black Man) is pleased to be part of Yes We Can! His natural disposition falling between two very close poles (the proverbial "other side of the pillow" and a fan), please read "pleased" as "thrilled." NY theater: American Sexy, The Great Recession, and Lower Ninth (The Flea); Lucid (Cherry Lane). Television: “L&O: CI.”

Jehan O. Young (Black Nanny). New York: FringeNYC, The Cherry Pit, Collective Unconscious, The Public Theater, New York Musical Theatre Festival. International: German Shakespeare Festival (Essen, Germany), Setkani Encounter Festival (Brno, Czech Republic). M.F.A, Acting, Columbia University School of the Arts. B.A, Drama, Spelman College

Brian Smith (Producer)  is a founding member and co-Producing Artistic Director of Down Payment Productions. With DPP, he directed and produced PINK! by Stacy Davidowitz (2010 NY Innovative Theatre Award, Outstanding Director) and produced The Realm and The Redheaded Man. Other producing credits include: Catch Me if You Can (Broadway and 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle), The Last Goodbye (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Camp Wanatachi (La MaMa ETC). As associate on Broadway: Come Fly Away, West Side Story, All My Sons, Legally Blonde the Musical (also West End and National Tour). Upcoming: The Harmonious Pimps of Harmony’s Last Show (Ars Nova). Brian is also proud to be the producer of NOISE Mime Troupe.

Adam Dworkin (Associate Producer, DPP Associate Director): DPP: Director: Uncorked; Assistant Director: The Realm. NYC/Regional, Director: Walter (The Network); Lady and the Vamp (The Player’s Loft); Drunk, The Christmas Present, The Accident (Williamstown); Suburbia, First Baptist of Ivy Gap, The White Cliffs, Necessary Targets (Stella Adler); Snow Day (Atlantic). Assistant Director: Curtains (Paper Mill Playhouse, dir. Mark Hoebee); After the Revolution (Williamstown, dir. Carolyn Cantor); It’s Jewdy’s Show (Williamstown, dir. Amanda Charlton); Artificial Traveler (Williamstown, dir. Daniel Goldstein); Sick (Berkshire Theatre Festival, dir. David Auburn); Outre Island (Ars Nova, dir. Sam Gold). www.adamdworkin.com

Tristan Jeffers (Scenic Design). Recent set designs include Fault Line Theatre's Doctor Faustus; Trinity Rep’s Dreams of Antigone in Providence, RI; Guerrilla Shakespeare Project's Two Noble Kinsmen; and Babel Theatre Project's Brack's Last Bachelor Party, You May Go Now, and Stomp and Shout (an' Work it All Out).  www.tristanjeffers.com

Franny Bohar (Costume Design) has spent the past year assisting various costume designers at The Juilliard School through the Juilliard Professional Intern Program.  New York design credits include Tapeworm: a film (East 3rd Productions), Dark Rapture, Moonchildren (Attic Theater Company), Silencing Ning, White Baby, Memory Like A Pale Green Clock, Where's Sheila? (all Emerging Artists Theatre Company), Love Money (FringeNYC/ the zoo), Crave, Somewhere In The Pacific, Hang Up, Cigarettes & Chocolate (all PTP/NYC).  Franny is a graduate of Middlebury College.

Grant Wilcoxen (Lighting Design) was most recently the Associate Lighting Designer for Rock of Ages on Broadway and Another American: Asking and Telling at Kansas City Repertory Theater.  Previously he was also the Associate for Blood From A Stone at The New Group and The Pinter Plays at Atlantic Theater Company as well as the Assistant on Spirit Control at Manhattan Theater Club Stage 1. 

Janie Bullard (Sound Design). Recent Designs: And Then They Came For Me (Childrens Theatre of Charlotte), Keep Your Baggage With You (Theatre for a New City), Nighttime Traffic (NYMF), underneathmybed (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre),Twelfth Night (Sonnet Repertory Company), The Last Five Years (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Ethel Waters: His Eye is on the Sparrow, Around the World in 80 Days (Triad Stage), Peter Pan, Candide, Broadway By The Year (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Flyin’ West (The Clarence Brown Theatre), Suddenly Last Summer (The Actor’s Express, Atlanta), The Santaland Diaries, Dracula (Upstage Cabaret at Triad Stage). Oliver! (Playmakers Repertory Company). Janie received her MFA in Sound Design from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Megan Larche, CSA (Casting) is a casting director and audition coach based in NYC.   She began her career with Binder Casting, and was the casting director for the Broadway revivals of Grease, A Chorus Line, The Times They Are A-Changin’, and The Lion King – children's casting. Film: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (20th Century Fox) – NY Casting Consultant, Hairspray (2007 New Line Cinema) – NY Dance Casting, Untitled Nancy Meyers Project (Universal Pictures) – casting associate.  Television: “Grease You’re the One That I Want.” Web Series: “The Underlings.” National Tours: The Lion King – children’s casting. Regional: Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (2004-2008 Producing Office productions), Happy Days, the Musical (Los Angeles). As casting associate, she worked on such Broadway shows as Sweet Charity, 42nd Street, Wonderful Town, and 16 Wounded, as well as 4 seasons of Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert. Currently she can be seen casting for A Chorus Line in the documentary Every Little Step (Sony Pictures Classics).  In 2007, she joined Fox Theatricals as an assistant producer for Legally Blonde the Musical on Broadway. She has also produced The Two Lives of Napoleon Beasley and Pvt. Wars while the Co-Artistic Director of the Incumbo Theater Company, a not-for-profit based in NYC. She is a member of the Casting Society of America and the League of Professional Theatre Women.