KATIE AILINGER (Production Stage Manager)

JON ROBIN BAITZ‘s plays include The Film Society,The Substance of Fire,The End of the Day,Three Hotels,A Fair Country(Pulitzer Prize finalist 1996),Mizlansky/Zilinsky,Ten Unknowns, and The Paris Letter, as well as a version o fHedda Gabler(Broadway 2001). He created “Brothers & Sisters,” the TV series which ran for five seasons, until 2011. Other TV work includes PBS’ version of “Three Hotels,” for which he won the Humanitas Award, and episodes of “The West Wing” and “Alias.” He is the author of two screenplays: the film script for “The Substance of Fire” (1996) and “People I know” (2002). He is a founding member of Naked Angels Theatre Company, and on the faculties of the MFA programs at The New School for Drama, and SUNY Stony Brook/ Southampton. His playOther Desert Citieswon the Outer Critics Circle Award in 2011.

NANCY E. CARROLL* returns to the Speakeasy where she appeared in Other Desert Cities, The Savannah Disputations, The Women, Company, A Man Of No Importance. She spent a season touring with the Druid Theatre of Galway appearing as Mammy in The Cripple of Inishmaan (US/Ireland) and the Old Woman in Big Maggie (Ireland). Her other credits include: Broadway: Present Laughter; Off Broadway: Balancing Act; Regional: The Seagull, Rapture Blister Burn, Good People, Luck of the Irish, Prelude to a Kiss, Brendan, She Loves Me, The Rose Tattoo, Dead End (Huntington Theatre); Our Town, She Loves Me (Williamstown); Trad (Tir Na); 4000 Miles, North Shore Fish, Breath of Life, Doubt, Happy Days, My Old Lady, Collected Stories (Gloucester Stage); The Year of Magical Thinking, The Glass Menagerie (Lyric Stage); The Clean House, Frozen, Sweeney Todd, Kindertransport (New Repertory Theatre); Bailegangaire (Súgán Theatre); Homebody/Kabul (Boston Theatre Works); Humble Boy, Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale (Publick Theatre); Auntie and Me (Merrimack Repertory); The Pain & The Itch (Company One); Buried Child, The Unexpected Man (Nora Theatre). She received Elliot Norton Awards for Miss Erickson in Present Laughter, the Woman in Brendan and Mommo in Bailegangaire. Recent TV/Film credits include HBO’s Olive Kitteridge and Spotlight for Dreamworks.

PAUL DAIGNEAULT (Producing Artistic Director) was the recipient of the 2014 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence by the Boston Theater Critics Association. Since founding SpeakEasy in 1992, he has produced over 100 Boston premieres. SpeakEasy directing highlights include: The Color Purple; In the Heights; Xanadu; Next to Normal; Nine; Body Awareness; The Great American Trailer Park Musical; [title of show]; The Savannah Disputation; Jerry Springer – The Opera; The New Century; Some Men; Zanna, Don’t!; Parade (2008 Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Director, Midsize Company); Almost, Maine; Caroline, or Change; Take Me Out; Company; A Man of No Importance (co-production Súgán); Bat Boy: The Musical (2003 Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Director, Small Company); Passion; A New Brain; Violet; Songs for a New World; Floyd Collins; Jeffrey; and Love! Valour! Compassion! Regional credits: Grand Hotel and Nine (The Boston Conservatory and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music); Rent, City of Angels, Sunday in the Park with George, and Merrily We Roll Along (The Boston Conservatory); and Into the Woods, Urinetown, and Blue Window (Boston College). Paul is also on the faculty at The Boston Conservatory where he teaches musical theatre and directing. He has also been honored with the Boston College Arts Council’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement in 2007, and served as the 2011-2012 Rev. J. Donald Monan S.J. Professor in Theatre Arts. Outside the theatre, Paul serves on the Boards of the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center and the ICU Patient & Family Advisory Council at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

DEWEY DELLAY is very happy to be back at SpeakEasy and work with these talented actors, designers, and staff members. Some of his past credits include: an Elliot Norton award for Outstanding Design for his music and design on The Women (Speakeasy Stage), 9 Parts of Desire, and Miss Witherspoon (Lyric Stage Company); an IRNE for best sound design on Five by Tenn(SpeakEasy Stage). He also was nominated for an IRNE for History Boys (SpeakEasy Stage). Dewey is now composing music for the television show Our America with Lisa Ling shown on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

LAUREN DUFFY SpeakEasy: Other Desert Cities, The Motherf**ker With the Hat, Adding Machine: A Musical. Other select credits: Little Shop of Horrors; A Christmas Story; afterlife: a ghost story; Frankie and Johnny and the Claire de Lune; andKite Runner (New Repertory Theatre). Company One debut: special effects for Bengal Tiger and the Baghdad Zoo. Lauren has served as a scenic artist and properties coordinator for Boston Children’s Theatre as well as properties coordinator for Central Square Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, and The Barnstormers Theatre. Lauren is also Charge Artist for the Des Moines Metro Opera in Iowa where she will be returning for her third season in June.

SCOTT EDMISTON (Director) returns to SpeakEasy where he directed Far from Heaven; The History Boys; The Light in the Piazza; Five by Tenn; Other Desert Cities; Next Fall; In the Next Room (or the vibrator play); Reckless; The Women; The Last Sunday in June; and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. He has directed more than 60 productions across New England for Lyric Stage, A.R.T., Huntington Theatre, and New Rep, among others. Highlights: Long Day’s Journey into Night, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Time Stands Still, Sunday in the Park with George, Water by the Spoonful, A Marvelous Party, Nixon in China, Private Lives, and Betrayal.  Scott is the recipient of SpeakEasy’s Outstanding Artist Award, three Elliot Norton Awards, two IRNE Awards, the StageSource Theatre Hero Award, and the Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence in Theatre. He is a Professor of the Practice and Chair of the Theatre Department at Northeastern University.  

ANNE GOTTLIEB* is thrilled to return to SpeakEasy for her fourth time. Other productions include The Women, In the Next Room or (the vibrator play), and the world premiere of The Wrestling Patient, which her company 40Magnolias Productions created and then co-produced in collaboration with SpeakEasy and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Recent appearances include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune at the New Repertory Theatre, Futurity at the ART, My Name is Asher Lev at the Lyric Stage, Not Enough Air at The Nora Theatre. She is the co-author of Anam Cara: Two Women Fall in the Ancient Tale of Gilgamesh which premiered at the Roy Hart International Centre in France. She is the recipient of the 2011 Elliot Norton Award and the 2011 Independent Reviewers of New England Award (IRNE) for her work in Frankie and Johnny and the vibrator play. Anne is a teacher for the Michael Chekhov Association and a committed student of the work. She is a resident scholar in Collaborative Process and Acting at Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. Anne resides and works in both Boston and New York.

MUNSON HICKS is happy to return to Boston, having previously appeared in twenty productions at the Huntington. He has acted in a dozen Broadway productions, most recently in August Osage County. Off-Broadway, Mr. Hicks co-starred in Neil Simon’s London Suite and Ayckbourn’s Communicating Doors. He has been featured at resident theaters around the country, most recently performing in Heroes at Portland Stage. Other credits include Death of a Salesman in Rochester and Arthur Miller’s final play, Resurrection Blues, in Philadelphia. He has performed such roles as Dr. Strauss in Spinning Into Butter at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, Bernard in Arcadia at The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Trigorin in The Seagull, and Tesman in Hedda Gabler at the Guthrie Theatre, Bri in Joe Egg at the Philadelphia Drama Guild, and Charles in Blithe Spirit at Center Stage in Baltimore. Mr. Hicks’ film and television credits include a recurring role on Ed; The Goodbye Girl, The Sentinel, Against the Law, Law and Order and Mildred Pierce. His professional directing experience includes Betty’s Summer Vacationin Pittsburgh, The Early Girl at Circle Repertory Theatre Off-Broadway, as well as both Candide and Candida at the Goodman Theatre among many others. He began his professional career as an original member of The Proposition in Boston and is a past recipient of Boston’s prestigious Otis Skinner award.

JANIE E. HOWLAND (Scenic Designer) is honored to be working with Scott and the team again. Previous Speakeasy designs include: History Boys and 5 by Tenn. Other designs include: Big River (Lyric Stage Company), Tonya & Nancy (Oberon), Breaking the Code (Underground Railway), Spring Awakening and Little Women (Boston Children’s Theatre). Venues include: Weston Playhouse, NSMT, New Rep, ART Instit., Nora Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, Seacoast Rep, Merrimack Repertory, Wheelock Family Theatre, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Huntington Theatre Studio 210, Opera Boston, Emerson Stage, Barnstormers, Foothills Theatre. Founding member of CYCO SCENIC; MFA from Brandeis University; 2009, 2006 and 1997 winner of the Elliot Norton Award; 2007 & 2006 winner of the IRNE award; part time faculty at Wellesley College and Emerson College; USA local 829.

KAREN MACDONALD* SpeakEasy: The Drowsy Chaperone. Most recently she was seen in Good People at the Huntington. Last season in Boston, she was seen in Coriolanus,Cupcake, Long Day’s Journey into Night and Superior Donuts. Other regional and local credits include Before I Leave You, Bus Stop,All My Sons and A Civil War Christmas (Huntington); The Color of Rose (ArtsEmerson); Two Wives in India (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); The Blonde, The Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead(Merrimack Repertory Theatre); boom (New Repertory Theatre);All’s Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Third (Portland Stage); and productions at Hartford Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival, and the Vineyard Playhouse. A founding company member of the American Repertory Theater, she appeared in 70 productions, including The Sea Gull,Endgame and Mother Courage. Nationally she has worked extensively, from Philadelphia’s Wilma Theatre to Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Directing credits include An Ideal Husband and The Woman in Black (Gloucester Stage) and Dressed Up! Wigged Out! (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre). The recipient of several Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards for her performances, Ms. MacDonald received both the Robert Brustein Award for Sustained Achievement in the Theatre and the Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence in 2010. She teaches at Harvard University and was the 2010-2011 Monan Fellow at Boston College. She graduated from the College of Fine Arts at Boston University and is a Boston native.

AMANDA OSTROW (Wardrobe Supervisor) Amanda is thrilled to return to SpeakEasy after working on: Far From Heaven,CARRIE the musical, The Whale, The Color Purple, Kurt Vonnegut’s Make Up Your Mind, Tribes, In the Heights,Clybourne Park, Other Desert Cities, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, and Xanadu. International touring credit: The Aluminum Show. Local credits include work at: Gloucester Stage Company, Hanover Theatre, Bad Habit Productions, Lyric Stage, Reagle Music Theatre, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, The Nora Theatre Company, and the Publick Theatre. Amanda received her BA in Media Studies and Business at the University of Southern Maine and is an EMC in Stage Management.

CHARLES SCHOONMAKER** (Costume Design) is happy to be back at the SpeakEasy. Previous work here includes The Light in the Piazza, Nine, and Other Desert Cities. He is the recipient of four Daytime Emmy Awards for his work in television. Boston-area theatre credits include Venus in Fur, God of Carnage, and A Long and Winding Road (Huntington Theatre Company); Tarzan (North Shore Music Theatre); Race, The Clean House (New Rep); Grey Gardens, The Legacy of Light, and 33 Variations (The Lyric). Credits in the Berkshires include the Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Dorset Theatre Festival, The Chester Theatre Company, and seven seasons as the resident costume designer at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Television credits include Another World, All My Children, and As the World Turns. He teaches costume design at Bennington College. Charles-Schoonmaker.com

CHRISTOPHER M. SMITH* is pleased to be making his SpeakEasy debut. New York credits include Tennis in Nablus (NY Premiere, Stageworks/Hudson), Eurydice (Walking the Dog). Los Angeles credits: The Pavilion (West Coast Premiere), Orange Flower Water, Antigone, True West, The Cherry Orchard and several independent films including Wart, The Golden Age, and Something Blue (Best Feature – Sonoma International Film Festival). Christopher is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association. He lives in New York City.

ALIX STRASNICK (Technical Director) Alix is excited to be back at SpeakEasy for her third season as the company’s Technical Director. Past SpeakEasy credits include Tribes; In the Heights, The Whale, and Next to Normal. Alix also served as Master Electrician for SpeakEasy’s productions of Next Fall and The Divine Sister. She is the Assistant Technical Director at the Groton School and worked on their productions of HairSpray and Romeo and Juliet. Other credits include Good Person, The Land (Fort Point Theatre Channel), Rock ‘n’ Roll, Lend Me a Tenor (Longwood Players), Much Ado About Nothing (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company: Apprentice Showcase) and She Kills Monsters (Company One).

MICHELE TEEVAN Previous SpeakEasy credits include Tribes (PA), What Lips My Lips Have Kissed (SM), Clybourne Park (PA), Other Desert Cities (PA), All About Election Eve (SM), Next to Normal (PA), Red (PA), Sorry, Wrong Number (ASM), The Divine Sister (PA) and The Blue Room (SM). Boston credits include Henry VIII (ASM) with Actors Shakespeare Project; Amadeus(PA)and Little Shop of Horrors (PA)withNew Repertory Theatre; The Nutcracker (ASM) with Northeast Youth Ballet; The Death of Tintagiles (SM) and Cruel Botany (SM) with imaginary beasts; The Fakus: A Noir (SM) with Centastage; and Romeo and Juliet (SM) with the Happy Medium Theatre Company. Michele is the Associate Production Manager at Speakeasy, the Production Manager at the Boston Opera Collaborative and is a graduate of Emerson College with her BFA in Stage and Production Management. .