TEAM
CAST | CREATIVE
Jonathan Shapiro (Playwright)
I did it for the story. Whatever it was.
Two Harvard degrees, a Rhodes scholarship, three years working as a newspaper reporter, 10 years as a trial lawyer and Assistant U.S. Attorney, 14 years writing and producing television shows like The Blacklist, Life, Boston Legal, The Practice, as well as three short-lived network shows I created and then ran into the ground on my own.
I've received Peabody and Emmy awards and nominations, taught for seven years as an adjunct law professor, mostly at USC's Gould's School of Law, and served as the Chairman of the California State Commission on Government Efficiency and Economy, which sounds like a joke but isn't.
I've defended political asylum seekers pro bono and created the Public Counsel Emergency Fund for Torture Victims but mostly I work of counsel as a trial lawyer at the firm of Kirkland & Ellis.
According to newspaper accounts, I've been a "willowy southpaw" amateur boxer with "no taste for the job" and the loser of the 1990 Berkeley Law School Honor's Moot Court Final.
Patricia McGregor (Director)
Patricia McGregor has twice been profiled by The New York Times for her direction of world premieres.
Her recent credits include co-author and director of the world premier of Lights Out, Nat King Cole (Peoples Light ) Skeleton Crew (Geffen Theater) Grief (Center Theater Group) Parchman Hour (Guthrie Theater), Hamlet (The Public Theater), Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Theatre Company), brownsville song (b-side for tray) (Lincoln Center Theater), the world premiere of Stagger Lee (Dallas Theater Center), and the world premiere of Hurt Village (Signature Theatre Company).
Her other credits include A Raisin in the Sun, Winter's Tale, Spunk, Adoration of the Old Woman, Blood Dazzler, Holding It Down, Four Electric Ghosts, Nothing Personal, and The House That Will Not Stand. She served as tour consultant on J. Cole World Tour and will premier a new piece at BAM by composer Ted Hearne and poet Saul Williams.
For several years she has directed the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, a co-founder of Angela's Pulse with he sister choreographer and organizer Paloma McGregor and was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow at Yale School of Drama, where she also served as Artistic Director of the Yale Cabaret.
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Rachel Myers (Scenic Designer)
Rachel Myers was born in California and raised in Portland, Oregon and abroad. She started early as an artist, rendering costumes and set models and painting her first stage backdrop at age 10. She learned the craft of entertainment design receiving her MFA from the Yale School of Drama and designing for theatre before Production Designing for film. Her Film credits include, "Short Term 12,” winner of SXSW and Independent Spirit Awards, "The Drowning,” "Search Party” "Identity Theft,” "Chronicles Simpson,” "Saving Lincoln” and "Liminal,” Winner of Best Art Direction – Barcelona International Film Festival, Punta del Este Festival and Action on Film Festival.
Television design, HULU "East Los High, "Five Points” Facebook, "Sing It” YouTube-Red, "Faking It” MTV, "Blue” LIFETIME nominee for ADG Award, "Paloma” and "Video Game High School” Lionsgate, Producers Guild Award and Streamy Award nominee for Best Production Design. Commercial clients, Crayola, ADIDAS, Ray Ban, ESPN, Volkswagon, Marriott, DAQRI, Hewlett Packard, Turbo Tax, Wrigley's, Gevalia, CVS, Soul, Pampers, L'oreal, Schick, Soap and Glory, Taco Bell, Maccaroni Grill and Getty Images. She has designed for regional theatres, Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, The Geffen, The Shakespeare Theatre, The Getty Villa, East West Players, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center and Williamstown Theatre Festival. Los Angeles Theatres- Rattlestick West, Los Angeles Ovation Awards, IAMA, Theatre at Boston Court and Vs Theatre.
Rachel's award-winning experiential design company, 3 PENNY DESIGN has conceived and produced live events, brand activations, pop ups and interiors for "The Emmy's,” "The Golden Globe Awards,” VIDCON, in Times Square and more. She is a member of the Art Directors Guild Local 800 and United Scenic Artists 829. Additional samples of her work can be viewed at www.3pennydesign.com
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Melissa Trn (Costume Designer)
NYC credits include: Antigone (SITI Company, Dir. Anne Bogart), My Sweet Charlie (June Havoc Theater), What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends, Al's Business Cards (Lion Theater), Bully to You (Soho Rep), Marilyn, and The King is Dead (Dorothy Streslin Theater), New Works Festival (Columbia University), The Screens, Baal (Riverside Church), The Sporting Life, The Erotic Diary..., Spacebar (Studio 42). Regional credits include: The Me Nobody Knows (Black Repertory Theater of St Louis), Grace, or the Art of Climbing (Nice People Theater Company, Philadelphia), Richard II (Yale Rep), Arcadia (Yale Dramatic Association), Marat/Sade (Yale School of Drama), and over 15 productions at the Yale Cabaret.
Melissa is also the resident Costume Designer for the Calhoun School in NYC. MFA Yale School of Drama.
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Leigh Allen (Lighting Designer)
Selected credits: Phaedra, (The Getty Villa), The Red Road (Gene Autry Museum), Never Gonna Dance (Carpenter Performing Arts Center), The Prince of LA (The Old Globe), The Fab Four (Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center), The Laramie Project (Mondavi Studio at UC Davis), Grease (Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center) Vincent in Brixton (Pasadena Playhouse), Lobby Hero (Odessey Theatre), Rocket to the Moon, (Pacific Resident Theatre), Always, Patsy Cline (Carpenter Performing Arts Ctr.), The Grapes of Wrath (Goldenwest College), Chechov x4 (The New Place Theatre), Les Miserables (Musical Theatre West), Florence, David & Art (South Coast Repertory Theatre), The Threepenny Opera (California State Univ., LA), Tibi’s Law (Stages Theatre Center), He Who Gets Slapped (Chapman University), Johnny’s Got His Gun (Stages Theatre Center), Flamenco (Alex Theatre), Getting it Wrong (Two Roads Theatre), The Pirates of Penzance (Irvine Barclay Theatre), The Wooden Breeks (Open Fist Theatre), Love Letters (Bristol Valley Theatre), Dance Escape (Claire Trevor Bren Theatre), Don’t Dress for Dinner (Bristol Valley Theatre),
Blues in the Night (Bristol Valley Theatre), Lost in Yonkers (Bristol Valley Theatre).
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Yee Eun Nam (Projections Designer)
Her recent theater design works include Black Superhero Magic Mama (Geffen Playhouse), Mother of Henry (LTC), Mountain Top (Garry Marshall Theatre), Skeleton Crew (Theatre Squared), Sweat (Mark Taper Forum), Bordertown Now (Pasadena Playhouse), Members Only, Dementia, A Mexican Triology: An American Story, Sweetheart Deal, La Olla (Latino Theatre Company), Citizen: An America Lyric (Grand Park, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Fountain Theater), SAPO (Getty Villa), American Odyssey (Culture Clash/Victory Garden Theater), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Antaeus Theater Company), Br’er Cotton (Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble), Lovesick and Generation Sex (Teatro Luna/Victory Garden Theater). Yee is a recipient of Gilbert Cates Award, Cirque du Soleil Fellowship Award. MFA in Theater Design at UCLA. BFA in Design and Metal Craft at SNU.
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Cricket S. Myers (Sound Designer)
In 2011, Cricket received a Drama Desk Award and a Tony Nomination for her design of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. In 2018, The League of Professional Theatre Women honored Cricket with the Ruth Morely Award for Theatrical Design. Cricket has been nominated for 22 Ovation Awards between 2007 and 2018. The nominations include for Large Theater: Allegiance, Bent, Only Have Eyes For You, Endgame, Play Dead, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Twist Your Dickens, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Little Dog Laughed, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Grace and Glorie, Mary's Wedding, Trying, Norman's Ark, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Emergency and in Intimate Theater: Cabaret, Bad Apples, Cousin Bette, Battle Hymn, dark play or stories for boys, and The Bachae. Cricket has been named Sound Designer of the Year multiple times by StageSceneLA and won the LADCC Kinetic Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatrical Design in 2015. Cricket was a finalist for the 2005 TCG/NEA Career Development Grant, and in 2003 won the USITT Young Designers Clear-Com Award for Sound design. Cricket serves on the Ovation Rules Committee, is a Founding Board Member and is the Western Rep of the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association, and was elected to the Western Region Board of United Scenic Artists Local 829 in 2017. Cricket received her MFA in Sound Design from California Institute of the Arts in 2003, and was named a "Young Designer to Watch" in Live Design Magazine's April 2007 Issue,and was recognized as "An Artist To Watch" by LA Stage Magazine in September of 2007. Cricket was the Resident Sound Designer for the Celebration Theater from 2005-2008, and the Resident Assistant Sound Designer at the Mark Taper Forum for 3 years.
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Elizabeth Weber (Producer)
Elizabeth is an experienced entertainment producer, business advisor, and advocate for the arts and public welfare. Building on the skills she honed as a top young rock-and-roll manager (twice Billboard Manager of the Year), she has produced creative stage shows at major venues and concert halls across the world including Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Hollywood Bowl, Kennedy Center, London's Royal Albert Hall, Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, and Oman's Royal Opera House. She has served as a board member of the Los Angeles Opera and other non-profits, and campaigned for the arts, women, children, and the environment. Enthusiastic about the role of cultural performance to empower the voices of the unheard and less-heard, and alert to the power of new technologies to advance successful artistic-audience encounters, she immediately saw the potential of Sisters-in-Law, acquired rights, and began the process to bring it to the stage.
Dale Franzen (Producer)
Dale Franzen has over 40 years of experience in the creative arts industry as an Opera Singer, Artistic Director, Tony Award winning Producer, Educator, Public Speaker and Mentor. She is an 8- time Tony Award winning Lead Producer on the 2019 Best Musical HADESTOWN now playing on Broadway. As the Founding Artistic Director of the Broad Stage at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, she spearheaded this $45-million state-of-the-art modernist arts complex from inception through planning, fundraising, construction, and its first seven seasons. As the Artistic Director, Dale consistently brought in renowned performers including Dustin Hoffman, Placido Domingo, Patti LuPone, Helen Hunt, Shakespeare’s Globe, Theatre for New Audience, and many others into the Broad Stage’s multi-purpose theaters. She is currently Lead Producer for a new play based on the New York Times best selling book, Sisters In Law. She is also in- development on new theatrical projects. She is honored to serve on The Board of Library Commissioners for the City of Los Angeles. She has served on various boards including Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau, The Broad Stage, and is a member of the Trusteeship which is a founding affiliate of the International Women’s Forum and serves on its membership committee. She has also served as a member of the advisory committee for the World Sacred Music Festival LA; as a judge at the prestigious Julian Gayarre (Jose Carerras) International Vocal Competition in Pamplona, Spain; and on the Education Commission of the States of Arkansas’ initiative “The Arts – A Lifetime of Learning.” Dale is a frequent lecturer and Panelist at several universities including Berklee School of Music in Valencia, Spain, CalArts, UCLA, and USC. Recently, Dale was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from Count Basie Center for the Arts. She also works as a strategic mentor and consultant to non-profits and artists. Dale has a Masters in Music from CalArts and also attended Stanford University's Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts.
www.dalefranzen.com
Don Franzen (Producer)
Don is a lawyer in Beverly Hills specializing in entertainment and business law who counts among his clients leading performers in the film, theatre and the recording industries. Involved at the outset of the project, he represented the lead producers of HADESTOWN in rights acquisition and development and was an executive producer of the off-Broadway HADESTOWN cast album. He has acted as an executive producer and business and legal on many recording projects for artists such as Placido Domingo, Yanni, Arturo Sandoval and Bill Murray/Jan Vogler. He has published articles on legal issues in newspapers, magazines, and law journals. He serves on the boards of the Los Angeles Opera and Heyday Books, and is also the legal affairs editor for Los Angeles Review of Books.
