Company

Jessica Brater, Artistic Director, was a fall 2006 resident artist at Mabou Mines/Suite to develop , for which Polybe + Seats also received a New Play Commission from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. The Charlotte Salomon Project was produced at Brooklyn Fire Proof in November 2006 and recently toured to the University of Michigan for the opening of the Walgreen Drama Center. Directing work away from the company includes a Fall 2007 workshop of Sibyl Kempson's KurbisGeistNacht at Dixon Place and Are You A Bird or a Dodo? Or, Aristophanes' Birds for Target Margin at HERE. Brater and Polybe are currently developing A Sea Change (CaCO3), a new play about fish, mermaids, calcium carbonate, and plastic, among other things. Brater's directing work for the company also includes Gertrude Stein's Counting Her Dresses as part of Speakeasy at the Flea Theater, The Ladies' Auxiliary Telephone Bee at the Tank and as part of The Brick's Moral Values Festival, Careful of Eights: Four (Five) short plays by Gertrude Stein at Dixon Place's Not for Broadway, the HERE American Living Room Festival, the American Theatre of Actors, and at Columbia University as part of a conference on Stein featuring renowned scholar Ulla Dydo. Brater directed the premieres of Sally Oswald's Two Spent Swimmers at the Brown University New Plays Festival and at the Abingdon Theatre in New York and Desmond or Abraham and Frances at the New York Fringe Festival, collaborating on Desmond's further development at the Voice and Vision Envision Retreat 2003 in a reading featuring Ruth Maleczech and Sharon Fogarty. Brater teaches and works in the Barnard College Department of Theatre, where she completed her undergraduate studies and received the Kenneth Janes Prize in Theater and is currently a student in the CUNY Graduate Center's Ph.D. program in Theatre Studies.

Miriam Felton-Dansky, Associate Artistic Director, is a founding member of Polybe + Seats. She directed Polybe's workshop of The Museum Play and served as dramaturg for Two Spent Swimmers, Careful of Eights, Life? or Theater?: The Charlotte Salomon Project, and most recently on the August, 2007 workshop of A Sea Change (CaCO3). Miriam is an MFA candidate in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Yale School of Drama, where she has dramaturged Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus and upcoming productions of Trouble In Mind and Peer Gynt. She is a managing editor of Theater magazine, a former editor of New Voices, and has also written for HotReview.org, nytheatre.com, curtainup.com, and The Brooklyn Rail.

Stacey Cooper McMath, Producing Director, is the proud Producing Director and a founding member of Polybe + Seats. She has produced Careful of Eights, Two in Two, The Museum Play , Two Spent Swimmers, and also now she is producing Life? or Theater?: The Charlotte Salomon Project. She has actually completed her Master's thesis in Theatre Management and Producing at Columbia University. Recently she was the company manager for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and was the general manager of Andrei Serban's Peer Gynt at Columbia University . She has also worked on The Lion King, The Crucible and Harlem Song, as the managing director of Voice and Vision Theater, and as the associate general manager for Peter Brook's Tierno Bokar. Stacey is currently the General Manager of Chashama.

Natalie Robin, Resident Designer, is a founding member of Polybe + Seats, for whom she has designed Desmond or Abraham and Frances, Two Spent Swimmers and The Museum Play and co-designed Life or Theater?: The Charlotte Salomon Project. She is an Associated Artist of Target Margin Theater, with whome she has worked on People are Wrong, Faust, The Dinner Party and The Argument. She also works with Imani Uzuri, Evan Cabnet, the Walden Company, Soho Rep and Les Freres Corbusier and has designed at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater. She assists Lenore Doxsee, Matt Frey, Juliet Chia Jane Cox and Japhy Weideman, among others. Natalie is attending NYU-Tisch for an MFA in Lighting Design, where sha has most recently designed Angels in America and There Was and There Wasn't.

Catherine Wallach, Associate Producer, likes the ladies of Polybe + Seats, and she also likes being a lady of Polybe + Seats. She especially likes seeing people wearing Polybe + Seats tshirts. She is crazy enough to enjoy maintaining mailing lists in her spare time; that used to be because her professional life was lacking in stimulus, but now she is happily working for Book of the Month Club and is glad that the ladies of Polybe + Seats like her enough to basically just let her say whether or not she likes things, which is really her favorite thing to do. She has been working with Polybe + Seats since the production of Two in Two in the summer of 2003. Apart from her work with Polybe + Seats, she has also been Associate Producer for Rush's Dream at HERE Arts Center, Company Manager for Ondine at Walkerspace, and Associate Producer for First You're Born at Playwrights Horizons.

Katya Schapiro is an actor, director, writer, teacher, dramaturg, and amateur producer. She is haunted by the Neverland. Katya conceived and co-produces Polybe's ongoing SpeakEasy series, at which she has performed and directed, and the Play Group first reading evenings. For Polybe, she also directed the premiere of David Egan's On and Giri at Union Docs in the fall of '05, and performed in the Ladies' Auxiliary Telephone Bees at the Brick and the Tank. Most recently seen as a Sturgeon in A Sea Change (CaCO3), she has also acted in Here We Go! (365days/365plays, Life? or Theater?: The Charlotte Salomon Project. Katya's short play Ever So Much More Than 20 debuted at Blue Box Productions' Sticky @ Galapagos in June '06. She has also acted in numerous Stickies over the last few years. Her first full length play, Better Angels, is in development for a workshop production in October 2007. Katya is a graduate of Barnard College, and has trained with Vernice Miller of ALAT and at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA.

Associate Company Members

Donald Butchko is a graduate of Skidmore College and a transplant from the Midwest. Favorite theater experiences of the past few years include: Cult Play (Playwright/Director), 45 Blows (playwright/director), Women and Wallace (Director), Assassins (Director). He has also worked with Barrington Stage Company on their Musical Theater Lab.

Marnie Cumings graduated from Earlham College and has worked in both Indianapolis and New York City. She has co-designed The Charlotte Salomon Project and designedA Sea Change (CaCo3) with Polybe + Seats. Marnie is a founding member of Shockagami and likes chocolate.

Samantha Debicki attended Columbia University, where she majored in English and minored in synchronized swimming. She has performed in New York and in the DC area, but her favorite performance venue will always be the bathroom of Brooklyn Fire Proof, provided it is fully stocked with Evian.

Avi Glickstein has appeared in Polybe + Seats' The Charlotte Salomon Project and co-produced and performed in Suzan-Lori ParksÕ 365 Days/365 Plays. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU. B.A., Columbia University; graduate, William Esper Studio.

Elaine O'Brien has appeared in Polybe + Seats' The Charlotte Salomon Project, 365 Plays/365 Days, and A Sea Change (CaCo3). Past favorite roles include Dawn in Lobby Hero and Agnes in Dancing at Lughnasa.

People We Like to Work With

Albert Aeed holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Clark University, and he is currently enrolled in the Sanford Meisner Conservatory at William Esper Studio.   NYC credits include the title role in the York Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth , Samuel in Careful of Eights, Pishchik and Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard , Jay in The Girl Who Fed Ants , Chuck in Aggravvation and Crito in Socrates on Trial . Favorite regional roles include John in Oleanna , Trigorin in The Seagull , Lou in Speed of Darkness , John Connor in Famine , Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew and Cassius in Julius Caesar . Film credits include Patrick in HOUSE ABOVE THE WORLD and Andrews in NOIR DESIR, both directed by Kevin McCormack.

Jason Binnick

Jacob Burstein-Stern is a writer all the time and an actor only when it’s fun. Last year he acted in Polybe + Seats's Mother Russia and it was fun. He wrote a play called Louis that was produced by Mad Air Productions at the Abingdon Theater in the spring of 2005. He used to be a high-school basketball player. His nickname was the Warrior."

Elizabeth Emmons has managed the stages of Blue Box Productions, The Flea Theater, Sanford Meisner Theatre, Theatre for the New City, Theatre Double Rep., Workshop Theater, Bowery Poetry Club and others. She is also a playwright; her plays have been seen in New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Sacramento, Argentina, England and New Zealand. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Executive Director of Blue Box Productions and recently completed her MFA in playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts.

Kara Feely www.objectcollection.us

Karen Flood creates costumes for film, theater, and advertising. She originated Urinetown, is the recipient of the 2003 ACE award for best costumes, and designed clothes for Sarah Jessica Parker to wear in Sex and the City. She is the main costume designer for Inverse Theater, styles clothing for photo shoots, and has had a beautiful experience working with these amazing people.

Andrew Gilchrist is currently working on his one-man show, The Exquisite Tale of Ronald Pelican, about a half-man, half-pelican lounge singer in Hell. Please, please email aggilchrist@gmail.com to be on the AdmiralÕs mailing list. Andrew is a graduate of Bard College.

Devon Harlow (founding member) is from Northampton, Massachusetts, where she grew up without cable television. Consequently, she loves to read books. Despite having the soul of an actor, she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in comparative literature at USC. Before she moved to an apartment complex in Los Angeles complete with a swimming pool, she performed in Desmond or Abraham and Frances, Two Spent Swimmers, Careful of Eights, and Counting Her Dresses.

Shira Milikowsky

Sally Oswald (founding member) is a playwright and editor. She is the recipient of an EST New Voices Fellowship and a Dramatists Guild Fellowship.  Her plays have been produced by The Hangar Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company/PYPF, and Polybe + Seats. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Brown and is the founding editor of PLAY A JOURNAL OF PLAYS (www.playjournal.com). Her plays include Plutonics, Two Spent Swimmers, Desmond or Abraham and Frances, and Goat Songs. She is currently at work on The Painful Adventures and Vendetta Chrome.

Molly Parker-Myers is an actor, singer and puppeteer. With Polybe + Seats, she has performed in The Charlotte Salomon Project and A Sea Change (CaCo3). She graduated from Mount Holyoke College, where she won the Phi Beta Kappa award for her direction and design of MayakovskyÕs The Bedbug. In New York, Molly has worked with The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater, The Looking Glass Theater, Urban Youth Theater and is a member of the Melodia WomenÕs Choir.

Lily Perlmutter can do all sorts of interesting things, but mainly she’s a Stage Manager. For Polybe, she has stage managed the June workshop of Life or Theater? A Tri-Color Opera and [Mother] Russia: A Lonely Person Is At Home Everywhere. She is currently a junior at Barnard College and has stage managed extensively for the Barnard Theater Department, as well as for the Classics and Dance Departments. Lily has interned with Voice & Vision Theater and the ENVISION Theater Retreat at Bard College, volunteered with the Drama Desk Awards, was a Production Assistant for Peter Brook's Tierno Bokar, and ran tech for a reading of Myra Paci's Fairy Queen at New York Theater Workshop. Lily hopes to graduate with a decent GPA and an appreciation for Alan Brinkley's sentence structure.

M. Ryan Purdy writes, acts, and directs. He also co-edits The American Journal of Print. He has worked with Polybe + Seats on two productions so far, the second of which immobilized him for the better part of a week. (The first of which asked him to do things that will not be discussed here.) He is grateful they keep asking him to help.

Lisette Marie Silva

Zuzanna Szadkowski (founding member) has performed in Two Spent Swimmers and in A Telephone Call for Polybe + Seats. She also helped to develop early versions of The Charlotte Salomon Project She graduated in 2001 from Barnard College and went on to earn a MFA from The A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training. Favorite roles in Cambridge and Moscow include Mother in The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie directed by Marcus Stern, Marta in Spring Awakening directed by Janosz Szasz and Lucy's Mother in Olly's Prison, directed by Robert Woodruff. In New York Zuzanna has worked with Yelena Gluzman's Science Project and on television in Law & Order, Law & Order Criminal Intent, The Sopranos, and in The CW's Gossip Girl.

Lindsay Torrey received her BA in Dance and English from Columbia University. She recently attended The Actor's Center as a part of their summer conservatory program and is currently studying acting and Alexander Technique with Jed Diamond. She has performed with Polybe + Seats in The Museum Play, Two in Two, and Careful of Eights.

Ari Vigoda, a Colgate graduate, performed improv with The Tribe in Boston. Since moving to NYC last year, Ari has been in Spinoza Rides Again, Henry V, The Life of Mary Berry, and the two-person showcase Leap; he has also participated in the LAByrinth Master Class. Much love to family and friends.

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