Company

Jessica Brater | Miriam Felton-Dansky | Catherine Wallach | Stacey Cooper McMath | Avi Glickstein | Elaine O'Brien | Natalie Robin | Sarah Sakaan | Lindsay Torrey | Ari Vigoda

Jessica Brater, Artistic Director*, is the founding Artistic Director of Polybe + Seats. Brater and Polybe were a fall 2006 resident artist at Mabou Mines/Suite to develop The Charlotte Salomon Project, 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 toured to the University of Michigan in April 2007 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'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 Mabou Mines co-artistic directors 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. She is a student in the CUNY Graduate Center's Ph.D. program in Theatre Studies.

Miriam Felton-Dansky, Associate Artistic Director*, is a DFA candidate at the Yale School of Drama and an associate editor of Theater magazine. Her dramaturgy credits include The Charlotte Salomon Project, Careful of Eights, and Two Spent Swimmers (Polybe + Seats) as well as Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus and Ibsen's Peer Gynt (Yale School of Drama) and Yale Repertory Theatre productions of Trouble in Mind and Rough Crossing. In addition to Theater magazine, her writing has appeared in Theatre Journal, PAJ, and the Village Voice. BA: Barnard College; MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Catherine Wallach, Producing Director, has been working with Polybe + Seats since the production of Two in Two in the summer of 2003. She was the associate producer of The Charlotte Salomon Project: Life? or Theater? in New York and Ann Arbor and the producer of Better Angels and Granada. Currently producing the company's A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things, she is also the Associate Editor for Book-of-the-Month Club and BOMC2.com.

Stacey Cooper McMath* is a founding company member of Polybe + Seats. She is a Program Officer at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and teaches in the Barnard College Department of Theatre.

Avi Glickstein is a New York-based actor and writer and has been involved in commercial, non-profit, regional, and downtown productions in various creative and technical capacities. With Polybe + Seats he has worked on Mother Russia, The Charlotte Salomon Project, Here We Go!: 365 Days/365 Plays (co-producer), and A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things. He also wrote Polybe's first commissioned play, Granada. In addition to Polybe, he also often collaborates with experimental music and theater group Object Collection. With them, he has performed in Is this a gentleman? (Ontological Incubator, 2005), Evoke memories of a golden age, Famous Actors, and Problem Radical(s) as well as musical compositions by Travis Just, Michael Pisaro, John Lely, Cornelius Cardew, and Christian Kesten. His performances and written work have been seen at venues including the Public Theater, New York International Fringe Festival, Mabou Mines, HERE, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Center Stage, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, and the University of Michigan. He has worked with companies that include Prospect Theater Company, Studio 42, Bread and Puppet Theater, New England Shakespeare Festival, the Bridge Theatre Company, Mind the Gap, and Creative Mechanics (founding Producing Associate). He has a B.A. from Columbia University in Theater and English and trained in Meisner technique at the William Esper Studio. Currently, he is completing his MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Elaine O'Brien has appeared in Polybe + Seats' The Charlotte Salomon Project, 365 Plays/365 Days, Granada and A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things. Past favorite roles include Dawn in Lobby Hero and Agnes in Dancing at Lughnasa.

Natalie Robin* is a New York-based lighting designer and founding member of Polybe + Seats, for whom she has designed Desmond or Abraham and Frances, Two Spent Swimmers, The Museum Play, Granada and A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things and co-designed The Charlotte Salomon Project. She is an Associate Artist of Target Margin Theater, an adjunct faculty member in NYU's Department of Undergraduate Drama and a contributing writer for Live Design Magazine. In 2008, she was chosen as a Young Designer to Watch by Live Design Magazine. BA: Columbia University. MFA: NYU Tisch School of the Arts. www.natalierobinlighting.com

Sarah Sakaan is a New York City based actress. With Polybe+Seats she has joyfully performed in A Thousand, Thousand Slimy Things and Granada. Other NYC acting credits include Marlowe's Doctor Faustus with Queens Players, Jose Rivera's Sonnets for an Old Century with Impulse Initiative, King Lear as Earl of Kent with Balloon Heaven Productions and Sybil Kempson's KurbisGeistNacht at Dixon Place. Sarah has also worked with The Flea Theater as a member of "The Bats" in Dawn, Offending The Audience and Post Mortem. She can be found travel hosting in Shakespeare's England and South Africa at projectexplorer.org. She is delighted to work with this talented company of Polybe+Seats ! Sarah is originally from Memphis, TN and holds a B.F.A. in Acting from Emerson College.

Lindsay Torrey is an actor, dancer and choreographer. With Polybe, she has appeared in The Museum Play, Careful of Eights and The Charlotte Salomon Project. Favorite credits include Estelle in No Exit and Anne Deever in All My Sons for the Clarence Brown Theatre, Desdemona in Othello for the Theatre at Monmouth, and Kit in Top Girls for The Actor's Center. She holds a BA in English and Dance from Columbia University and an MFA in Acting from The University of Tennessee.

Ari Vigoda has been working with Polybe + Seats as an actor since 2006. He has performed in their productions of The Charlotte Salomon Project, A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things, and Granada. He has also appeared on Guiding Light and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. For the very latest, check out www.arivigoda.com.

Company Members Emeriti

Donald Butchko

Marnie Cumings

Samantha Debicki

Devon Harlow *

Sally Oswald *

Katya Schapiro * (Archivist)

Zuzanna Szadkowski *

Peiyi Wong

* Founding Member of Polybe + Seats

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