(conceiver; director; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
Tony currently serves as Associate Artistic Director at Classic Stage Company
(CSC) where he directs and teaches for the award-winning THE YOUNG COMPANY.
Directing credits: Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming
of the Shrew (CSC), Remembering Mr. Maugham (The Clurman Theatre),
Criminal Genius, Mildred Is… (Actors Theatre of Louisville), The
Children (New York Musical Theatre Festival- NYMF), pierced! (Edinburgh
Fringe Festival), The Ex (Samuel French Short Play Festival), Minor
Gods (Dublin Gay Theatre Festival), Slut-The Musical (American Theatre
of Actors), My Martha Moment (H.E.R.E.), Raw Impressions (The Club
at La MaMa E.T.C.), Camino Real, Waiting for Lefty and Ivanov
(Columbia University). As a writer, his play Delirium: The Myth of Arthur
Rimbaud was presented at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it was
honored with a British Writers’ Guild Award. Tony was a member of the 1998-99
Acting Apprentice Company at Actors Theatre of Louisville, is a graduate of The
Boston Conservatory and holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University. He is
also the proud recipient of a 2009 Princess Grace Theatre Honorarium.
www.tonyspeciale.com
(associate director; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
Recent Projects: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at The Public (PA), The
Young Company’s Twelfth Night at Classic Stage Company, and Romeo and
Juliet with the Young Company (AD). Catherine also production manages for LAVA,
and is currently directing and developing a one-woman show with Michele Arrieta.
Education: B.A., Otterbein College.
(stage manager)
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
Directing and design credits include so much depends upon [a red wheel barrow]
, Bryant in the Park, Rhinoceros, Knock: or the Triumph of
Medicine and The Maids (HRDC); performance credits include Hedwig and the
Angry Inch, Hedda Gabler, Caligula (HRDC), L'echange
(Avignon Festival OFF), Camino Real (Columbia Stages); artistic collaborator
for Traumland (Yale Summer Cabaret) and SCHOOLED (art.party); writer,
translator, and comedian; Hoopes Prize Nominee for Knock, Top 10 Most Creative by
The Harvard Crimson, Winthrop House McCord Prize for Achievement in the
Arts, Signet Society of Arts and Letters member. Education: A.B. Harvard College,
Romance Languages and Literatures.
(stage manager)
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
Recent New York Theatre: The Duchess of Malfi (ArtParty Theatre), Camino
Real (Columbia Stage), La Femme Est Morte (PS 122, 59E59, Stage Award
Winner: Best Ensemble - Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Thinking Makes It So
(Center Stage); Millicent Scowlworthy (13P). Regional: Two Men of
Florence (Huntington Theater), Uncle Sam's Satiric Spectacular and A
Christmas Carol (Actors Theatre of Louisville). TV: As the World Turns.
Joe recently co-wrote and co-starred in a new play, Samuel & Alasdair: A
Personal History of the Robot War, which was performed at The Brick Theater
and at Ars Nova. Mr. Curnutte is a proud graduate of Cornell College, with degrees
in Education, English and Theatre.
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
New York credits include: Monstrosity (Simon) at 13p with Lucy Thurber;
Camino Real and Waiting for Lefty (Tom Clayton) at Columbia Stages;
Three Sisters (Tusenbach), directed by Olympia Dukakis at The New School;
Cymbeline (Aviragus) at Quality Meats Theatre Company; Twelfth Night
(Sebastian) at Circle in The Square Theatre. TV: Law & Order, As The
World Turns, One Life To Live and Saturday Night Live.
(dramaturg; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
Heather is a dramaturg, translator, theatre scholar, and playwright.
As dramaturg, she has worked with directors David Levine, (Bauerntheater,
Venice Saved), Josh Fox and the International WOW Company, (Reconstruction,
AutoDaFe), Paul Bargetto of East River Commedia (Automotive), among others.
She has consulted for a number of playwrights as well. Her dramaturgical work
has been mentioned in Theater magazine and she is recognized as an American
expert on Heiner Müller. Denyer's own plays include, Running Down a Dream
which tells the story of the Baader-Meinhof Group, Entre Frères about 18th
century French monks, Becoming a Fish about African immigrants, and
Honor Thy Neighbor, a comedy about racism. She has translated plays from
German and French, including You Don't Leave, You Don't Come Back by Hélène Cixous,
A Flea in Her Ear by Georges Feydeau, and Figaro Gets a Divorce by Ödön
von Horvath, as well as adapting King Lear into the African dialect of Fulani.
Before settling in New York, Denyer stage managed in theaters and operas across the
country and studied theater in France and in Germany. She served as Literary Fellow at
Geva Theatre Center for the 2008-9 season and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in
Cameroon from 2003-5. Denyer has an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University
and a BA from Northwestern University. She is currently teaching English
literature and pursuing her PhD in Theatre at the City University of New
York's Graduate Center. Look for her forthcoming introduction to Erin Browne's
award-winning play Trying to be published in New York Theater Review.
(pr consultant/web development) Discovering Oz is a New York marketing and communications agency that specializes in working with arts, nonprofit and mission-driven organizations. We approach our work with the goal of creating long-term, dialogue-based relationships between organizations and the many communities they serve, using a fully integrated media strategy, from website and print design to onsite marketing. www.discoveringoz.com
(associate producer)
(Original Music/Sound Design) Christian is a violist, composer, and sound designer living in Brooklyn, NY. Recent credits include: The Forest, Age of Iron, An Oresteia, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet (CSC); Antigone with the SITI Co. (DTW); The Emperor Jones (Irish Rep.); 2009 National Playwrights Conference, The O’Neill Theater Center; The Fever Chart (The Public Theater); The Tempest (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Christian is a founding member of the band Rachel’s with six albums on Quarterstick Records and has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He collaborates frequently with the SITI Company and has recorded with Shannon Wright, Shipping News, and Mission of Burma. He is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory and The Juilliard School, where he studied with Paul Coletti and Eugene Becker.
(consultant)
Tara Schoch Frederickson is an actress living in Brooklyn, New York. She is a
big fan of Tony's and the rest of the boys (past and present), who have poured
their hearts into this project. www.tarafrederickson.com
(stage manager)
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
Readings/workshops: The Man in the Ceiling (Disney Broadway Theatricals),
Wig Out! (Vineyard), The Black Crook (Naked Angels). Max recently
appeared in Coney Island Avenue at New York Theater Workshop and is the star of
the cult web series Gay's Anatomy (
www.gays-anatomy.com). Film: Watching TV with the Red Chinese,
Breaking Upwards. BFA: NYU/Tisch. Graduate of LaGuardia High School for the
Performing Arts. Recipient of the Isabelle Stevenson Award for Excellence in
Acting ("Tonette"), presented by the American Theater Wing.
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
New York theatre includes: Camino Real and Waiting for Lefty at
Columbia Stages, The Fabulous Kane Sisters in Fringe 2008, One Minute
Plays at the Brick theatre, and Orson's Shadow with the Outrageous
Fortune Theatre Company. Regional: Antony and Cleopatra, Much Ado About
Nothing and Shakespeare for Kids (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival),
Peter Pan (Actor's Theatre of Louisville) and A Nice Family Gathering
(The Dixie Theater, FL). Mr. Kleinsmith holds a BFA in Acting from Otterbein College.
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
James was born in Brazil, and is a recent graduate of the MFA acting program at
Columbia University. Credits include: Tell It to Me Slowly at the Robert
Moss Theatre, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet at the Classic Stage Company,
and Trinculo in The Tempest at Folkswan Festival.
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts; graphic and web design)
Jerry is a NY based actor, writer, creative director and visual artist. Theater:
Brecht on Brecht (Accidental Repertory Theatre), Bald Diva! and I,
Claudius Live (Theatre Askew), The West Village Fragments (Peculiar
Works Projects), Antony and Cleopatra and The Stranger (DM Theatrics),
MONO (Another Urban Riff), Drinks Before Dinner (Inside Art Theatre Co.),
Hamlet and The Viscount (Gemini Collision Works), Mephisto (Theater
of Necessity and Reverie Prods) and Charles Ludlam's Der Ring Gott Farblonjet
(Nada Show World Ridicu-Fest). Film: The Likes of Us, A Rogue in
Londinium, Man With Midnight Eyes and Exodus 20:13. Mr. Marsini
is a member AEA and Accidental Repertory Theater. He is a graduate of Duke
University and The Actors Center Conservatory.
www.marsini.com
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
Patrick has been working with Tony on Unnatural Acts since 2007 and is
thrilled with the progress it has been making. He has most recently been seen in
Yudkowski Returns! (The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of Dr. Eliezer Yudkowski)
at the Brick and Crime Scene Cleaners at PS122, both directed by Bob Saietta.
Bob and Patrick are currently working on a new musical about the Self-Transcendence
3,100, the world’s longest footrace. Other career highlights include Snow in
June and Martha Clark's A Midsummer Night's Dream at American Repertory
Theatre. He is a member of Phil Soltonoff's Maddog Theatre Company and has
performed with them in New York and at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. He may
currently be seen in Journeyman Pictures' Memorial Day, directed by Josh
Fox’s International WOW theatre company and produced by Michael Stipe. He is a
recent graduate of The Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.
(collagist; co-author, Unnatural Acts) New York: She Plundered Him (INTAR at The Cherry Lane) Other plays include Say Hello Children (The Red Room), the one-act play Guts (Schapiro Theatre) and two ten-minute plays, The Iron Maiden (The Torture Project) and Foreign Fields (The Patriot Project). Norman premiered his first play, Waiting for Good Blow at the Underbelly (Edinburgh Festival 2004). In 2005, his teleplay Take Away Girl was produced at Channel 4 studios in the UK. Upcoming New York productions include The Academics Present Chaos Theory (ArsNova, ANTFEST), and Guts (Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Octoberfest). Mr. Norman is a proud Shubert Fellow and a recipient of the John Golden Award. He studied writing for television at TAPS and is a graduate of Eton College, the University of Leeds and Columbia University’s MFA playwriting program
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
CSC Young Company: Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night and Petruchio in The
Taming of the Shrew, dir. Tony Speciale. Off-Broadway: understudied three roles
in A Streetcar Named Desire (BAM) starring Cate Blanchett, dir. Liv Ullman;
As You Like It, dir. Sir Peter Hall (BAM); Twelfth Night and
Tartuffe (Pearl Theatre Company); Anchorpectoris, dir. Gerald Thomas
(La MaMa etc). NYC: Another Country, dir. Diane Paulus; Baal, and
LaChiusa’s The Wild Party (Riverside Theatre); The Caucasian Chalk
Circle (PL 115/Mabou Mines); Julius Cesar and Much Ado About Nothing
(Gorilla Repertory); Cymbeline (Quality Meats); Matthew Takes Mannahatta
(Vital Theatre Company); Search and Destroy (Kraine Theatre). MFA: Columbia
University’s School of the Arts.
(actor; fight director; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
Credits include Milk 'n' Honey (3LeggedDog) and 365Days/365Plays
(Light Box at Central Park & The Public Theatre); Artifact workshop (Knife
Inc. at Joyce SoHo); Patience [Or Taking It], AIDS Reveal, and
Switch (Access Theatre); And/Or (Dixon Place); Ivanov (Shapiro
Theatre). As a fight director, he has worked on The Age of Iron, An
Oresteia, Richard III, Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet
(Classic Stage Company); The Children (NYMF); Blood Guilty (Irish
Theatre Festival); Camino Real, Medea (Riverside Theatre); Beef
(78th St. Theatre Lab), New Car Scent (Center Stage); Minor Gods
(Dublin Gay Theatre Festival). He directed Ready, Set, Go! for the Actors
Theatre of Louisville, and was the Assistant Director on Was at the Human
Race Theatre. Member: AEA and Light Box.
(Lighting Designer)
Natalie Robin is a NYC-based lighting designer who designs theater, opera, dance,
music and performance art. She is a Founding and Associate Company Member of
Polybe + Seats and an Associate Artist of Target Margin Theater. She is also 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. In 2009, she participated in the Lincoln
Center Directors Lab and has been a guest artist at Bard and Muhlenberg Colleges.
She is also a photographer, writer and production manager. Designs this season
include Twelfth Night at Classic Stage Company, Hamlet (set and
lights) at the Paradise Factory and A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things on a
barge in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Touring projects include Miguel Gutierrez's Last
Meadow (France 2010), Taylor Mac's The Young Ladies Of ... (US and UK)
and Jessica Dickey's The Amish Project. BA: Columbia University. MFA:
NYU/Tisch www.natalierobinlighting.com
(Researcher/Producer) Meredith has produced and assisted on many premieres, including Michel Vinaver's 11 septembre 2001, Stephen Dillane's Macbeth (A Modern Ecstasy) and SINTROCA’s LaSanta. Prior to her return to New York City, she was the Executive Director of ArtWallah in Los Angeles, producing the largest and longest-running South Asian diasporic arts festival in North America. She was the Associate Producer on the award-winning BULLY, starring Richard Fry and The British Ambassador’s Belly Dancer, both of which premiered in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2008. She has collaborated extensively, including work with Classic Stage Company, Barrington Stage Company, Center for New Performance, Dee Gee Entertainment and the Sundance Theatre Lab, at which she assisted in developing Million Dollar Quartet, Taking Flight and Passing Strange. Current projects include the commissioned play Rwanda Project and a new adaptation of La Lucarne by Jacqueline Harpman with Belgian playwright and producer Caroline Wouters. She holds a MFA in Producing from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA in Design/Technical Theatre from the University of Connecticut.
(Scenic Designer)
Russell is originally from Detroit, MI, and has over 10 years of experience as a
Designer, including Theatre, Event Design, Exhibit & Display, Interiors, and
daytime television for CBS and ABC. Most recently, he has written and illustrated
a children's book for which he is seeking publication.
(mascot & chaperone)
(actor; co-author, Unnatural Acts)
New York and Regional Theater: Strangers (Ontological), The Proust
Project (staged reading with Michael Stuhlbarg at CSC), Much Ado About
Nothing (Portland Stage Company), A Christmas Carol (American
Conservatory Theater), Wit, Little Shop of Horrors (Actors Theatre
of Louisville), Rebecca Gilman’s Capitalism 101 (25th Humana Festival),
Sarah Ruhl’s Virtual Meditation #1 (26th Humana Festival), Barefoot in
the Park (ECU Loessin Theater, NC), Site-Seeing (NYC Fringe and DC
Capital Fringe), Woyzeck (Riverside Theater), Waiting for Lefty and
Ivanov (Shapiro Theater). Television Credits include: One Life to
Live, As the World Turns, All My Children, The Guiding Light
and various commercials. Mr. Stone was a part of the 2000-2001 Acting Apprentice
Company at Actors Theatre of Louisville and is a graduate of the MFA acting
program at American Conservatory Theater (ACT).