if on a winter's night...
a quest to find a play brings two unlikely strangers together in this piece about love and theater!
written by Bixby Elliot/ directed by Julie Kramer
with Kaaron Briscoe*, Zach Fifer, Charlie O'Leary and Lori Vega*
*appears courtesy of Actor's Equity
KAARON BRISCOE (ACTOR ONE)
Kaaron Briscoe is a New Orleans native with an MFA from ART/MXAT/IATT at Harvard University. She has performed on international stages, in films, and national commercials. Some of her favorite roles include Columbia in Pocahontas and/or America (Little Lord), Athena in Ajax (ART), and 1st Visitor/1st Sidney in Largo Desolato (ART/MXAT/IATT). Kaaron was a 2015 fellow for Target Margin Theatre’s Institute for Collaborative Theatre Making.i.
ZACH FIFER (THEATERGOER 2)
Zach Fifer is so happy to get theatrical with Bixby, Julie, Erin, and the rest of this amazing team. Zach graduated from the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University in 2016, and moved to the city shortly after that. As a baby New Yorker, Zach has loved getting his feet wet in the New York theatre scene over the past year. Some of his favorite past productions have been The Plague in Venice (Pantelone), Lord of the Flies (Simon), and Steubenville (now titled Jane Doe, a devised piece that travels to universities in American and New Zealand to speak out against sexual assault and rape culture)
CHARLIE o'LEARY (THEATERGOER 1)
Charlie O’Leary is a playwright, dramaturg, and an actor-but-only-when-Bixby-asks-after-several-drinks. He is a lyricist in the Advanced BMI Workshop and an alumnus of the Project Y Playwrights Group, the Brooklyn Generator, the 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, and the Fornés Playwriting Workshop. He has been a finalist for the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and a two-time semifinalist for the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. His plays have been developed and presented by Crashbox Theater Company, Pipeline Theatre Company, Project Y Theatre, the Flea Theater, Middle Voice at Rattlestick, Jersey City Theater Center, Loading Dock Theatre, the Tank, the PIT, the Habitat, Pace University, and the University of Notre Dame. He is very grateful to be here.
LORI VEGA (ACTOR 2)
Lori is thrilled to be working with this amazing group of collaborators with the Theater Husband/Theater Wife Project. NYC credits include: The Protest at Cherry Lane,Quartemaine's Terms at TACT, Mail Order Bride at The Beckett Theatre, La Tempestad at The (old) Ohio andMen and Women Talking Love and Sex at The Davenport Theatre. Regional: Halftime with Don at NJ Repertory Company, As You Like It with Lake Tahoe Shakespeare and Idaho Shakespere, A Midsummer Night's Dreamwith Lake Tahoe Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet with Saratoga Shakespeare, Peter Pan with Dorest Theare Festival, The Consul, The Tramp and America's Sweetheart with Oldcastle Theatre Co, The Groundling with The Theater Project, Augusta with Playwritghts Theatre of NJ and Since Africa with Interact Theatre Co. Find out more at www.lorivega.net.
JULIE KRAMER (Director)
Julie Kramer is a critically acclaimed writer and director, known for developing new plays and musicals. She directed her adaptation of Rona Jaffe's bestselling novel THE BEST OF EVERYTHING at HERE in New York, where it was a "New York Times" and "Time Out" Critics’ Pick. It is published by Dramatists Play Service. She is currently writing THE CLICK, a comedy with music about The Women’s Movement, which was a special project in residence at New Georges. Recent directing includes SANTA DOESN’T COME TO THE HOLIDAY INN at Ensemble Studio Theatre and AND…ACTION for Keen Teens at The Keen Company. Other directing includes OUTSIDE MULLINGAR (Pioneer Theatre, Salt Lake City), HILLARY (New Georges) MOTHER LOAD ("New York" magazine Critics' Pick); PEARL’S GONE BLUE, (FringeNYC Best Musical) and multiples shows at UCB Theater and the HBO Comedy Festival in Aspen, CO. www.juliekramerdirector.com
BIXBY ELLIOT (PLAYWRIGHT)
Bixby Elliot’s play Abraham Lincoln was a Faggot was produced at Chicago’s About Face Theater and was selected as one of TimeOut Chicago’s Top 10 Plays of 2015, it was nominated for Jeff Awards and received critical acclaim (critics pick by TimeOut and Windy City Times and 3 ½ stars from the Chicago Tribune). Abraham Lincoln was a Faggot has received productions in Columbus, OH and readings at OutFront Theater in Atlanta as well as Urbanite Theater in Sarasota, FL. The play was also a finalist for the O’Neill Theater Conference in 2010, as well as a finalist for New Dramatists, Seven Devils Development Conference, winner of the Pandora New Play Competition, a semi-finalist for and New Harmony Workshop. The New Yorker Magazine remarked thatBixby’s latest NYC production of his play Sommerfugl, directed by Stephen Brackett and starring Wayne Wilcox, “conjure(d) the spirit of Christopher Isherwood, both in its vivid evocation of Europe between the wars and in its characters’ bittersweet yearning for the fullness of life.” His play Blueprint was produced by Tony Award winning producer Arielle Tepper Madover as part of her new works Summer Play Festival (SPF). This production was directed by Drama Desk Nominee Jonathan Silverstein and starred Emmy winner Peter Strauss. Bixby’s next play. His play Girl You Know It’s True (inspired by the rise and fall of the pop/rock duo Milli Vanilli) was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Conference in 2011, finalist for New Harmony, semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award, finalist for Kitchen Dog Theater New Works and an advanced round entry for PlayPenn 2011. Girl You Know It’s True received its world premiere production in Spring 2012 at Chicago’s The Pavement Group and was produced in Seattle in March 2014. Other plays include Birds Do It (semi-finalist for Princess Grace Award), Treasure Island, FL (2012 O’Neill Conference semi-finalist, Seven Devils semi-finalist, SouthernRep New Play Festival Winner, New Orleans), PN1923.45 LS01 volume 2: The Book Play (New York Premiere: NYC International Fringe Festival), Hotel Oracle (New York premiere: Walkerspace/SoHo Rep) and I Am Not Peter Pan (New York premiere: Cherry Lane Theater; Edinburgh Fringe Festival – Best of Fest Winner). Bixby is a graduate of the MFA playwriting program at Columbia University and a proud company member of InViolet Theater Company. Bixby’s writing also includes television projects – in 2012 he was in development with Jennifer Lopez Entertainment for a new hour long comedy/drama and this year he is working with a producer on a new hour long historical drama. Bixby has also written two screenplays Highway and Happy, Now (finalist for the Sundance Writers Lab). He is the proud co-curator of The Brooklyn Generator (a new play generation project) and co-organizer of Second Monday Social (a monthly event for new play development).