PROGRAM
Written by William Shakespeare, Directed by Peter Romano
CAST
(In order of appearance)
*Please check houseboards for any program changes.
*Taking pictures and/or making visual or sound recordings is expressly forbidden.
Priyanka Kedia (Gregory/ Juliet)
Priyanka Kedia (she/her) is an actress based in NYC, repped by Innovative Artists. She graduated in May 2023 from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts; she has trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and Stonestreet Studios in NYC and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. She most recently appeared in the independent feature film The Book of Jobs and as Maria in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at Theatre East.
Justin Viz (Samson/ Paris/ Mercutio)
Justin Viz is a Storyteller based in New York City. He is grateful to be performing with the Apocalyptic Artist Ensemble! This will be his second telling of Romeo & Juliet, previously as Romeo. Other Shakespearean credits include Hamlet at La MaMa, As You Like It,Macbeth, and Timon of Athens. His other stage credits include The Tragical Historie of Maximillien Robespierre at The Flea Theater, Loves & Hours, and The Cool. Justin trained at the Tom Todoroff Conservatory and Terry Knickerbocker Studio in NYC; as well as various other schools around the world and has a B.A. in Cinema from SFSU. IG @viz.just.in
Ellis Craig (Abraham/ Romeo)
Ellis is a New York based actor who graduated from Hofstra University with a BFA in performance, originally from Portland, Maine. Thank you to Apocalyptic Artists for this opportunity! Mom, Dad, and Noah: for the love and support always. Liz: thanks for telling me to stick it out at this open call, I almost left and went home. @ecraig.777 on insta.
Brynne McManimie (Benvolio/ Friar John)
BRYNNE is a Brooklyn-based actor, filmmaker and teaching artist. As an actor, she has worked in a variety of mediums. TV: Succession, Law and Order, Evil, Harlem, Elementary, Bull. Off-Broadway: Othello (Classic Stage Company). As a filmmaker, she has produced several award-winning web series and films. Highlights include The New Neighborhood, a web series which was invited to the HollyWeb Festival in Los Angeles, CA, and My Own Country, a short film by Celine Song, as part of the Asian American Film Lab's 72 hour Shootout. She currently teaches at Hunter College, and is one of the Co-Founders of Apocalyptic Artists Ensemble. She holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University, and is a proud AEA and SAG-AFTRA union member. www.brynne-mcmanimie.com
Eli Bridges (Tybalt/ Page/ Music Director)
Eli Bridges is a NYC based actor and musician. A few recent credits include, CBS "FBI MOST WANTED" (GUEST STAR), "MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN" (CO STAR) dir. by Edward Norton, FIRE ISLAND, and FX' "GOTHAM." Eli Bridges has been in two productions with APOCALYPTIC ARTISTS ; Cassius in "JULIUS CAESAR" and Amiens in their latest film production of "AS YOU LIKE IT" and is thrilled to continue working with this amazing collective of artists. Enjoy the show!
Jamil Mangan (Friar Laurence/ Balthasar)
Jamil A.C. Mangan credits include NYC: Classic Stage Company: (Sargent) Mother Courage; Cherry Lane Theater: (Dad) Crooked Parts; Teatro Sea: (Bear) Protect The Poets Regional: Rep. of St. Louis (Monsieur Bouc) Murder On The Orient Express; Playhouse on Park: (Troy Maxson) FENCES; Perseverance Theater: (Othello) OTHELLO; Alabama Shakespeare Festival (Bernard) Freedom Rider; Orlando Shakespeare Theater: (Master Page) Merry Wives Of Windsor; Everyman Theater: (Harmond Wilkes) Radio Golf; Theaterworks Hartford: (MLK Jr.) The Mountaintop. TV: Blue Bloods (CBS), Manifest (NBC), Good Cop (Netflix), Gotham (FOX). www.JamilMangan.com
Alice Renier (Capulet/ Apothecary/ Fight Captain)
ALICE is a theater artist and teacher who specializes in working with heightened text. As a teacher, she has facilitated workshops in countless schools throughout New York City. She has served as an arts education administrator and teacher for The Public Theater, Classic Stage Company, Red Bull Theater, The Classical Theater of Harlem, and Columbia University. She served as acting coach for the first Broadway national tour of Bandstand: The Broadway Musical, as well as the national tour of American Girl: Live! Performance credits include Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Apocalyptic Artists Ensemble), Theater of the Film Noir (Astoria Performing Arts Center), Caught Dreaming (New York Theaterfest), Othello, Julius Caesar (Classic Stage Company). She holds a BA in Musical Theater from the University of Tampa and an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. www.alicerenier.com
Kea Trevett (Prince/ Nurse)
Kea Trevett (she/her) is a theater practitioner, filmmaker, and educator. As an actor, her NY theater credits include Roundabout, Classic Stage Company, Lincoln Center, Ars Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Sheen Center, New Georges, The Lark, Page 73, and Cherry Lane. Regional credits include The St. Louis Shakespeare Festival and Hamptons Shakespeare Festival. TV/Film: Fosse/Verdon, Middlehood, The Kindergarten Teacher, Milkwater. Kea teaches playwriting and Shakespeare in performance for Theatre For A New Audience and Lincoln Center, and is a founding member of Apocalyptic Artists. MFA: Columbia University. www.keatrevett.com
Creative Team
Peter Romano (Director)
Peter Romano is a Syrian-American Actor, Director and Educator. He has performed at The Signature, 59E59 with Noor Theatre, Target Margin, Miami New Drama, Classic Stage Company, Premiere Stages, New Dramatists, Atlantic Theatre Company, Primary Stages and worked with theatre artists such as Suzan-Lori Parks, Nicky Silver, Jo Bonney, and Gregory Mosher. TV and Film credits include New Amsterdam, The Blacklist, Wu Tang: An American Saga and Netflix’s The Week Of with Adam Sandler. Peter has directed productions of Antigone and Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle which toured schools and community spaces in South Florida. With Apocalyptic, he has directed filmed adaptations of Julius Caesar and co-directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He is a faculty member at Marymount Manhattan College’s Theatre Department andand holds a BFA from NYU Tisch and MFA from Columbia University.
Ali Walenski (Stage Manager)
Production Manager: Piper Theatre; National Tour: Flamenco Vivo – Carlota Santana; Production Stage Manager: Romeo and Juliet (HVSF), Stealing Mona Lisa, Noises in My Head, Candlelight by John Patrick Shanley, Trails reading Dir. Lorin Latarro, 1-2-3 Manhunt, Eight productions (sixteen total plays) for Polaris North;The World Is Lit by Lighting, winner of Best Play, Best Direction, and Best Actors at The Secret Theater’s Act One: One Act Festival; Love Alone: Elegies for Rog by Paul Monette; Little Rapes (New Group); The Drill (LIU-Brooklyn).
Dina El Aziz (Costume and Prop Design)
DINA EL-AZIZ (She/Her) Regional: Lost Girl (Dartmouth); Selling Kabul (Northern Stage); English (Barrington Stage); Disgraced (American Stage); A Distinct Society (TheaterWorks); Layalina (Goodman Theatre); A Distinct Society (Pioneer Theater); English (Studio Theater); Selling Kabul (Seattle Rep); Unseen (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); When Monica Met Hillary (Miami New Drama); This is Who I Am (OSF/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co./Guthrie Theater/American Repertory Theater/PlayCo); 9 Parts of Desire (Portland Center Stage); King Lear (Northern Stage); Noura (The Guthrie); Noura (The Old Globe); Selling Kabul (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Off-Broadway: Munich Medea, Weightless (WP Theater); The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater); Spindle Shuttle Needle (Clubbed Thumb); Heartland (Geva Theater/59E59); First Down (Noor Theater/59E59); Hindsight (Fault Line Theater). Other theatre credits: One Night, P*ssyC*ck Know Nothing, Marjana and the Forty Thieves Pay No Attention To The Girl (Target Margin Theater). Design for Stage and Film MFA–New York University Tisch School of the Arts. www.dinae.me
K. Ann McDonald (Dramaturgy)
Although Ann’s day job for the past 40 years has been practicing law, her vocation since middle school has been Shakespeare. Ann was a member of the Board of The Shakespeare Society since its founding in 1997 and was its President from 2007 through 2017. She collaborated with Artistic Director Michael Sexton in developing Shakespeare programming for the general public designed to kindle appreciation for and understanding of Shakespeare’s works. In 2007 Ann co-founded the Hunts Point Children’s Shakespeare Ensemble, now a program of The Public Theater. She continues to act as the Dramaturg for the HPCSE, productions include The Tempest; As You Like It; Twelfth Night; Romeo & Juliet; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Hamlet; and Much Ado About Nothing. Ann has served as dramaturg on Apocalyptic Artists Ensemble’s film adaptations of As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Caesar. Other dramaturgy credits include Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakesperience Productions, Waterbury, CT). For the past 25 years Ann has also participated in leading discussions about Shakespeare in a reading group composed of academics and educated laymen. Harvard College B.A. in English (cum laude) (concentration in 16th and 17th century English Literature); Columbia Law School J.D. (an editor of the Law Review; Harlan Fiske Stone scholar).
Leana Gardella (Fight and Intimacy Director)
Leana Gardella (she/her) is a Fight Director, Intimacy Director, and Performer based in NYC. Select Credits: The Devil Wears Prada the Musical at the Nederlander in Chicago (ID), Our Class at BAM (ID/FD), Belfast Girls at Irish Repertory Theatre (FD/ID), Marie It’s Time at HERE Arts Center (ID/FD), Richard III with Soho Shakespeare Company (FD), Sway at The Flea Theater (FD), macbitches at the Chain Theatre (FD). www.leanagardella.com
Peter Dunn (Casting Director)
Peter William Dunn is a former child actor, turned producer, writer, director, educator, and casting professional in NYC. He's most recently served as the associate casting director for Freestyle Love Supreme, the 1st National tour of TINA, Titanique, various shows at The Muny, and the 3 National tours and Broadway production of world phenomenon, HAMILTON. A multi-hyphenated artist, Peter strives to create and hold the safest space for artists, a passion for advocacy, and stresses the importance of diversity, inclusion and equity in not only the entertainment industry, but in our everyday world.
Brett Radke (Vocal Consultant)
Brett Radke (he/him/his) is an actor, director, and educator based in New York City. Brett is a Designated Linklater Teacher, a Certified Teacher in The Michael Chekhov Technique, and has performed Off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally. Select acting credits include The Comedy of Errors (Classic Stage Company), Everyday Afroplay (The Bushwick Starr), Armature (Cleveland Public Theatre), The Pitmen Painters (The Beck Center for the Arts), Tecumseh! Outdoor Drama, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Performance Network) and Medea (The Little Globe Theatre, Ukraine). Brett has trained with artEquity, The Restorative Justice Initiative, and Theatrical Intimacy Education, and is passionate about creating theatre spaces that are inclusive, consent-based, and trauma-informed. He is currently on faculty at Fordham University, Marymount Manhattan College, The City College of New York, Long Island University-Brooklyn/The New Group, and The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. As a teaching artist, Brett has worked with The Play Group Theatre, Broadway Bound Kids, Classic Stage Company, Great Lakes Theatre, and Baldwin Wallace University’s Conservatory Outreach Program. He holds an M.F.A. in Acting from Columbia University, where he was the recipient of the Bob Hope Fellowship, and a B.A. in Theatre from Oakland University. Additionally, Brett apprenticed with Jeff Daniels’ acclaimed Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan. He is a member of AEA, VASTA, ATHE, and The National Alliance of Acting Teachers.
Actors Equity Association
Actors' Equity Association (“Equity"), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors' Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. #EquityWorks
Producers
The Story
In Verona, Italy, Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight - despite their families’ ancient grudge. In a world of “us” versus “them,” the lovers secretly marry and hope for a future where they can love freely.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet echoes many of the burdens facing young people in our current post-pandemic society: loss, identity,and the challenges of confronting unexamined assumptions about themselves, their families, and their world.
The Tour
Romeo and Juliet will tour New York City Middle and High Schools throughout April 2024, providing students with a unique theatrical experience. Employing minimal design and live musical elements, and supported by in-school workshops, a company of actors will transform familiar school spaces - cafeterias, auditoriums - into Verona.
Special Thanks to our Supporters
Coming Soon!
As You Like It
Apocalyptic Artists produces filmed adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays created specifically with young audiences in mind as a first entry point into classical theater. They have been screened publicly and for hundreds of students throughout the five boroughs, viewable in chapters and offered alongside innovative classroom curriculum developed by the company.
The Story
Banished from the society of court, Rosalind starts a new life in the Forest of Arden disguised as a boy. Outside the city limits, she discovers a newfound freedom of identity, expression, and love in a story that flips the script on romantic convention.
The Series
Set in present-day New York City and filmed in two locations, this playful adaptation juxtaposes an old Hollywood drama at the Duke’s Court and a bohemian romantic comedy in the Forest of Arden where characters explore new identities and new ways of living. Through this story of love and possibility, Apocalyptic invites our audience to consider how we might live in harmony with each other and Nature?
Thank you for joining us!
Apocalyptic Artists doesn’t exist without YOU. Thank you for showing us your support by celebrating with us in person.
Stay in touch, and spread the word! There’s room for everyone in the ensemble.
- Alice, Brynne, Kea, and Peter