At Writers Theatre: Eurydice

John is delighted to make his Writers Theatre debut in Eurydice. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: The Davenport Theater: Around the World in 80 Days; The Lamb’s Theatre: Silent Laughter; The Belt Theatre: The Nuclear Family. REGIONAL: Lookingglass Theatre Company: The Steadfast Tin Soldier; Goodman Theatre: Notebooks of Leonardo DaVinci; Berkeley Repertory: Treasure Island; Arizona Theatre Company: Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberley; Merrimack Repertory: The Villain Supper Club; Milwaukee Repertory: The Royale; Geva Theatre Center: The 39 Steps, Little Shop of Horrors; Actors Theatre of Louisville: A Christmas Carol; North Shore Music Theatre: A Funny Thing Happened…Forum; Alliance Theatre: The Legend of Pecos Bill. FILM: Gut Feelings. TV: Good Eats, Smoking Gun TV. John is a founding member of Dad’s Garage Theatre Company of Atlanta, an improvisation instructor, puppet filmmaker and faculty member of The Heifetz International Music Institute.

[Bio as of August 2023]

Kenny is ecstatic to be working with Writers Theatre for the first time. Previous Chicago credits include Arsenic and Old Lace (understudy) (Court Theatre); and Describe the Night (understudy) (Steppenwolf Theatre). Previous regional credits include Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, American Players Theatre, American Shakespeare Center, Nashville Shakespeare Festival, and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. For Jordan Marshall forever and always.

[Bio as of September 2023]

Susaan Jamshidi (she/her) was recently seen as Marta Lee in Raven Theatre’s hit show, Right To Be Forgotten. She’s played Mrs. Cratchit for four (and upcoming five) seasons of Goodman’s A Christmas Carol. Other Goodman credits include The Winter’s Tale and Yasmina’s Necklace. Recent credits: Seattle Rep’s Selling Kabul and Steep’s Light Falls. Chicago credits: Lookingglass (Jeff Award Nomination for Best Ensemble – The Arabian Nights), Victory Gardens (The Who & The What), Drury Lane (Christmas Carol), The Gift (Bethany), Northlight (Faceless), Remy Bumppo (The Life of Galileo), Theatre Wit (Seven Homeless Mammoths…), Sideshow Theatre (Jeff Award for Best Ensemble – Idomeneus), Backroom Shakespeare, and several new play workshops, among others. International tours: Oh My Sweet Land (London/Toronto/Vancouver with Silk Road Rising). Regional: Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, Rep of St. Louis, and Notre Dame Shakes among others. Film/tv: The Tam and Kevin Show, After: A Love Story, Don’t Worry About It, Being There, Little Nations, Cicero in Winter, The Wallet, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D. and Sirens. Susaan earned her MFA from DePaul University and is represented by Paonessa Talent. (AEA/SAG/AFTRA) @susaanlayla

[Bio as of September 2023]

Chicago credits include: Isaac’s Eye, Arms and the Man (Writers Theatre). Measure for Measure, Alls Well That Ends Well, The Kings Speech, Tug of War - Civil Strife, A Midsummer NIght’s Dream, As You Like It, Amadeus, and Funk It Up About Nothin’ (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre). One Man Two Guvnors, The Secret Garden, Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, The Illusion, The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, Uncle Vanya, The Real Thing (Court Theatre). The Matchmaker, Boleros for the Disenchanted, A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre). Steel Magnolias. Mamma Mia, The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park (Drury Lane). Charm and The Chalk Garden (Norhtlight Theatre). Bright Half Life, Le Switch, The Homosexuals, Say You Love Satan (About Face Theatre). The How and The Why (Timeline Theatre). The Old Curiosity Shop (Lookingglass Theatre). Homebody/Kabul, Morningstar (Steppenwolf Theatre). Regional credits: over 20 productions with Milwaukee Repertory Theatre including Our Town, Almost Maine, The Crucible, Wit, Anna Karenina. Russian Transport (Renaissance Theatreworks) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, (co-pro with Syracuse Stage) Boeing Boeing, Arcadia (Indiana Rep). Cymbeline (American Players Theatre) Richard III, Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet (Summer Shakespeare at Notre Dame). Elizabeth is a 2016 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow. Her voice over work can be heard on many commercials, video games and The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas. Ms. Ledo is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago. 

[Bio as of September 2023]

John returns to Writers having previously appeared in As You Like It, Heartbreak House, Yellow Moon, The Liar, and Hamlet. He has been a working actor, throughout Chicago and regionally, for nearly thirty years. John is a proud member of three acting unions AEA, SAG- AFTRA, and AGMA.

[Bio as of September 2023]

Sarah Price is thrilled to be making her Writers debut. Chicago theatre credits include Dear Jack, Dear Louise (Northlight Theatre), The Wolves, Carlyle (New Stages) (Goodman Theatre), Harvey, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice (U/S) (Court Theatre), The Secretaries (First Floor Theatre), Earthquakes in London (Steep Theatre), You On The Moors Now (The Hypocrites), The Sweeter Option (Strawdog Theatre Co.), Monstrous Regiment (Lifeline Theatre), Solstice (A Red Orchid Theatre), X, Mai Dang Lao (Sideshow Theatre Co.) and Northanger Abbey (Remy Bumppo Theatre Co.), as well as X and Mai Dang Lao at Sideshow Theatre, where she is proud to be an Artistic Associate. Regional credits: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Indiana Repertory Theatre), With Love and a Major Organ (Boise Contemporary Theater). TV: Chicago Fire (NBC). She also plays Augie Eckhardt in The Vanishing Act Podcast, and won a 2020 Audio Verse Award for Best Leading Role in a New Audio Production. Sarah is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University, the Improv Training Program at iO, and Second City's Conservatory. She is represented by Gray Talent Group. www.sarahpricechi.com.

[Bio as of September 2023]

Mr. Yando performed as Scar in the national tour of The Lion King for three years. Winner of five Joseph Jefferson awards, he was honored as Chicago Magazine’s Best Actor in Chicago, where he makes his home. Larry received DePaul University’s Excellence in the Arts Award and was the recipient of the 2014 Sarah Siddons Award for Chicago’s Leading Man. Also in 2014, Larry was named Wall Street Journal's Performer of the Year. In 2019, Larry worked with the theatre legend Peter Brook and toured Europe with his production of BATTLEFIELD. Mr. Yando has taught advanced acting classes at The Theatre School at DePaul University, Northwestern University and Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Classical Training Program. In 2010, he was one of nine actors chosen to be a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow.

[Bio as of September 2023]

SARAH RUHL's plays include In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Clean House, Passion Play, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Melancholy Play, For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday, The Oldest Boy, Stage Kiss, Dear Elizabeth, Eurydice, How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, Orlando, Late: a cowboy song, and a translation of Three Sisters. She has been a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony award nominee. Her plays have been produced on and off Broadway, around the country, and internationally, where they have been translated into over fifteen languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Steinberg Award, the Samuel French Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Whiting Award, the Lily Award, a PEN Award for mid-career playwrights, and the MacArthur Award. You can read more about her work on www.SarahRuhlplaywright.com. Her new book 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write was a New York Times notable book of the year, and she most recently published Letters from Max with Max Ritvo. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama, and she lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Braden Abraham joined Writers Theatre as the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Artistic Director in 2023. He comes to Writers from Seattle Rep, the largest resident theatre in the Pacific Northwest, where he advanced the organization as a director and producer, including the development and premiere of many new plays. He directed six world premieres for Seattle Rep and over 20 productions including: True West, Clybourne Park, Photograph 51, Ibsen in Chicago, Betrayal, Luna Gale, A View from the Bridge, A Great Wilderness, Breakin’ Hearts and Takin’ Names, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. 

Among his initiatives as the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Artistic Director , Braden committed Seattle Rep as one of the first partner theaters to bring the Public Theater’s model for the Public Works program across the country. Seattle Rep’s Public Works strengthens community connection through making ambitious productions of participatory theater. Braden also re-envisioned the New Play Program, commissioning and premiering plays by Anna Zeigler, Samuel D. Hunter, David Grimm, Justin Huertas, Samantha Silva, Cheryl L. West, and Karen Hartman, and supported the work of dozens of playwrights and directors through premieres and the Other Season development lab. Many projects developed through this program went on to acclaimed runs at Seattle Rep and around the country including Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s Come From Away, Cheryl L. West’s Shout Sister Shout!, Erica Schmidt’s Mac Beth, and Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice.  Under his leadership, Seattle Rep was the only theater outside New York and London to present David Byrne’s Here Lies Love. Most recently, Braden initiated 20x30: Reimagine the Anthropocene, to commission twenty new plays by the year 2030, and New Directions, a unique commissioning program designed to support generative work from directors. 

Around the country, Braden has developed new work at Ojai, O’Neill, Denver Center, and Perseverance Theatre. He has been a guest artist at Stanford, Gonzaga, Seattle University, and the University of Idaho. He conceived and developed Way Stations, a series of interactive walking tours in Seattle for the Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards and is the co-creator of Gordon Hempton: Let it Happen, an audio installation about the life and work of Emmy-Award winning sound ecologist Gordon Hempton. He is married to Cheyenne Casebier and the proud papa of Phoenix Faye Abraham.

DANIELLE NIEVES (Costume Designer) she/her is honored to be making her Writers debut. Her work has been seen at The Old Globe, The 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, South Coast Repertory Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, ACT Theatre, Village Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Cleveland Playhouse. Off-Broadway credits: Pity in History, No End of Blame, Gertrude The Cry, and Lovesong of the Electric Bear for PTP/NYC at the Atlantic Stage 2. Danielle holds an M.F.A. in Costume Design from the University of California Irvine and a curatorial certification for Japanese and Western costumes from the Kyoto Costume Institute. www.daniellenieves.com

[Bio as of September 2023]

MARCUS DOSHI (Lighting Designer) is an international theatre maker, professor, and author. Broadway credits include Pass Over (2021, also Amazon Film) and Linda Vista (2019). Work Off-Broadway includes The Public Theatre, Signature Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, a longstanding collaboration with Theatre for a New Audience, and many others. His work has also been seen in Chicago at The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Court, and Chicago Shakespeare, regionally, at most major theatre and opera companies, and internationally, in 18 countries across five continents. He is the author of Towards Good Lighting for the Stage: Aesthetic Theory for Theatrical Lighting Design published by Routledge. He is a graduate of Wabash College and the Yale School of Drama, and is a Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University where he teaches in the MFA Design and Directing programs. marcusdoshi.com

[Bio as of September 2023]

JEFFREY LEVIN is an award winning sound designer and composer based in Chicago IL. Jeffrey has contributed original music and sound designs for hundreds of productions for many theaters, production companies, and universities regionally and internationally. Chicago credits include productions with Goodman, Steppenwolf, Court, Drury Lane, Northlight, Paramount, Timeline, Steep, A Red Orchid, Northwestern University, DePaul University, Columbia College, and many more. Regional works for the stage include productions with American Players Theatre, The Gulfshore Playhouse, Asolo Repertory, University of Austin, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, Denver Center for Performing Arts, and Children’s Theatre Madison. Jeffrey has also worked on a variety of immersive theatre productions contributing many designs with the live-entertainment company Fever which produces shows in over 60 cities across Europe, America, and Asia. He also teaches Sound Design courses at the Theatre School of DePaul University and has taught music theory and sound design with other educational institutions. Awards and recognitions include three Joseph Jefferson Award wins and many nominations for Sound Design and Original Music. Other awards include the Edes Award for Emerging Artists, Kleinman Composition Competition, and Michael Merit professional award. Visit www.jeffreylevinmusic.com

[Bio as of September 2023]

TONYA LOCKYER is an award-winning choreographer and cultural producer. Named a “key cultural changemaker” (Seattle Times), Lockyer has produced projects, co-founded festivals, and directed organizations that continue to have a profound impact on the U.S. dance ecology. Her work in performance has been seen at Lincoln Center, National Museum of Women in the Arts, New York’s Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, Boston’s Emerson Majestic Theater, Long Beach Opera, Paris’s International Conference on New Media, Canada’s National Arts Centre, Russia’s International Festival of Experimental Art, and Poland’s Opera Baltycka; as well as featured on NPR and in The New York Times; presented by TEDx; and received awards from The National Endowment of the Arts and the Canada Council. Recently, Lockyer choreographed Seattle Rep’s Indecent “one of the seminal productions in Seattle stage history”. A native Newfoundlander, Lockyer has collaborated with some of the most groundbreaking experimentalists of our times and enjoyed a critically acclaimed inter/national performing career.

[Bio as of September 2023]

MICAH FIGUEROA [he/him] is a queer, latinx, Chicago-based Actor, Director, Choreographer, and Teaching Artist specializing in intimacy/violence, physical theatre, and circus arts. He is thrilled to be back working with everyone at Writers Theatre and Eurydice! His most recent work as a Violence and Intimacy Director was Anna in the Tropics with Remy Bumppo Theatre Company. Other select productions include: First Floor Theatre (Mike Pence Sex Dream, Plano, Botticelli in the Fire), Steep Theatre (The Leopard Play, Light Falls), UNC Charlotte (These Shining Lives), and Northwestern University (In His Hands, Something Rotten, Men on Boats, Peerless, Blood Wedding, Sweat, Indecent, Everybody, and Exit Strategy). He holds a degree in Directing and Playwriting from Southern Methodist University.

[Bio as of September 2023]

KATIE KLEMME (Stage Manager) WT credits include Eurydice, A Distinct Society, Tiger Style!, Wife of a Salesman, 2021 Wordplay Gala, and Into the Woods. National credits: Hamilton (Eliza Tour Sub); Sorin: A Notre Dame Story (Tour). Regional credits: Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Geva Theater Center, ArtsEmerson. Select Chicago credits include Brooklyn Laundry, Dial M for Murder, The Porch on Windy Hill, Georgiana & Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley, Intimate Apparel, Mr. Dickens' Hat, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, Landladies, and You Can’t Take It With You; Notes from the Field (TimeLine); Villette (Lookingglass);  If I Forget, Indecent, Lettie (Victory Gardens), Mr. Burns: a post-electric play 10 out of 12, The Realistic Joneses, The Santaland Diaries (Theater Wit); and 10 seasons at American Theater Company as a resident stage manager.

KATE NAGORSKI is thrilled to return to Writers Theatre! ASM credits include Every Brilliant Thing, Eurydice, Pearl’s Rollin’ with the Blues (Writers Theatre); Carmela Full of Wishes (Chicago Children’s Theatre); Sundown Yellow Moon (Raven Theatre). Other Chicago backstage credits include Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Antigone, The Gospel at Colonus, Fen (Court Theatre); Georgiana & Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley (Northlight Theatre); The Hot Wing King, A Distinct Society, Tiger Style!, Wife of a Salesman (Writers Theatre); and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Beehive: The 60’s Musical, Kiss Me Kate (Marriott Theatre).

[Bio as of January 2025]