Production Manager – AB Commendatore

My Sister is an Actress

Performed at “Festival of Summer Shorts,” Portland, OR, 2007. Workshopped at The Santa Fe Film Center, Santa Fe, NM as a fundraiser for The Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center in 2008.

Debbie Finkelstein (Playwright) has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. Her play, My Sister is an Actress, has been performed in New York, Santa Fe and Portland (OR). Her other plays have been part of several festivals including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Page to Stage Festival; ARFTCo.’s Chicago Christmas Spectacular; Girl Play and Naked Women Fully Clothed at the Women’s Theater Project, Fort Lauderdale; and Chicago Dramatists’ What Scares Me the Most, with guest director Joy Meads, Literary Manager of Steppenwolf Theatre Co.

Krista D’Agostino (Director) is the Producing Artistic Director for Holland Productions, where she has directed Jordan Harrison’s Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh; Naomi Iizuka’s Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls; Philana Gnatowski’s The Halfway House Club; Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz; and Emily Dendinger’s Swimming After Dark. She has also directed projects for Harvard University, Boston College, Another Country Productions, Company One, Boston Actors Theatre and The Boston Theatre Marathon. At The Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2009 Krista assisted Amanda Charlton on the world premiere of Melinda Lopez’s Caroline in Jersey and directed Film Noir by Adam Szymkowicz; Sidewalk Art By Erica Lipez; and The Admiral and Diane by Crystal Gomes for the WTF Workshop. Krista is currently producing Sarah Ruhl’s Melancholy Play, opening March 14th at The Factory Theatre, directed by, M. Bevin O’Gara.  She is thrilled to be working with GAN-e-meed!!

Michael Fisher (Eric) a Long Island native, received his BFA in acting from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. Recent stage appearances include Music From A Sparkling Planet and The Gingerbread Lady (Happy Medium Theatre Co.), Macbeth (Gurnet Theatre Project), The Laramie Project (Bad Habit Productions), and a summer stint with the sketch comedy group The Pushers in New York City. Law students in the audience may also recognize his voice from the AudioCaseFiles legal audiobook series. He is grateful for the opportunity to tread the boards at the Factory Theatre once again

Kenny Fuentes (Jim) is excited to make his debut with GAN-ə-meed Theatre Project! A graduate of Brandeis University, he recently founded The Collaborative Process Theatre Company, and has begun the workshop process for his debut full length play Perfect Pitch: A Post-Punk Play with Music. Directing credits: Ori and Addison, subUrbia, A Devil Inside, The Gingerbread Lady, For Whom The Southern Belle Tolls, The Actor’s Nightmare and Red Cups. Boston acting credits: Aloha, Say The Pretty Girls (Holland Productions), Saint Joan (Wheelock Family Theater), Macbeth (Gurnet Theatre Project), Hot Zero (Company One/SLAMBoston). Brandeis Acting credits: Count Gregor in Fools, Teddy in Arsenic and Old Lace, Gus/Augustus in Arcadia, Ramon in Variations on the Death of Trotsky, Craig in Crack, The Books and The Steward in Into The Woods.

Erika Geller (Nell) is a graduate of Brandeis University and The London Dramatic Academy. She is a Co-Artistic Director of The Collaborative Process Theatre Company and can currently be seen in Makeshift Theatre’s The Emperors New Clothes. Her favorite roles include A Devil Inside (Caitlin), Comedy of Errors (The Duke), and You Can’t Take It With You (Alice).

Sheryl Johns (Melinda) has been interested in theatre since the fourth grade when she read about Sarah Bernhardt.  In Boston over the past few years, she has participated in community theatre in many short play festivals, 24 hour play festivals (write, rehearse and perform a short play in 24 hours), and 48 hour film festivals (write, perform, and edit a short film in 48 hours).  She insists she is not a commitment-phobe.

Kiki Samko (Lonnie) Boston credits include The Fantastic Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, Weasel, A Dream of Life, Look and Long (Imaginary Beasts); Kid Simple (Holland Productions/The Factory Theatre); 47 Ways to Die (Club Oberon); Theme and Variations/Best of the Best (Another Country Productions/The Factory Theatre); My Cantaloupe Girlfriend/SLAMBoston (winner, winter 2009); and Training Wisteria (F.U.D.G.E. Theatre Co.). She holds BAs in Drama and English from Tufts University, and trained at the Actors Movement Studio in NYC.

Victor Shopov (Gerald) is a local actor/director/playwright living and working in the Boston area.  Recent stage credits include Music from a Sparkling Planet and The Gingerbread Lady (Happy Medium Theatre), Assassins (Curtain Call Theatre), Macbeth(Gurnet Theatre Project), Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls (Holland Productions), and The Heidi Chronicles (Longwood Players).  His 10-minute play Physics of Love will debut as part of the Another Country Productions presentation of SLAMBoston: Diverse Voices in Theatre in March, where he will also direct a separate piece, Sure Not, by Shannon Reed.  Many thanks to Krista for, yet again, teaching me that I am, in fact, incapable of saying no.

As Yet Untitled

Dawn Simmons (Playwright) is a writer/director living in Boston, MA. She is one of the Artistic Directors of New Exhibition Room with her partner, Nora Long, and works at StageSource as Director of Programs. Upcoming work includes directing the staged reading Lost Tempo by Cliff Odle for Whistler in the Dark, and penning New Exhibition Room’s summer show Candyland in July at Boston Playwrights’ Theater.

Becky Weber (Director) A Brandeis BA graduate, Becky is currently a Boston based theater artist. Massachusetts Credits include New Repertory Theatre’s Christmas Carol, and Opus (March 2010), Shakespeare on Love and As You Like It, with Commonwealth Shakespeare Co, Candide and One Flew Over… with The Berkshire Theatre Festival. She has also directed The Love of The Nightingale and Blue Orange with Free Play at Brandeis University, and is looking forward to directing with Whistler in the Dark for their staged reading series this coming March. She will be playing the role of Horatio in GAN-e-meed’s inaugural production, Hamlet.  Thanks to Laurie, Joanie and Carolyn, and the myriad other mothers and sisters who have raised, inspired, and challenged her to be more of the woman she is today.

Laura Lorand (Woman) recently graduated from Brandeis University with a B.A. in Theater Arts. She is excited to become a part of Boston’s Arts community. Most recently performed at Mobius Art Space’s Works in Progress. She wants to thank GAN-e-meed Theatre Project for their continuing efforts to increase the voice of women in all aspects of Theater.

Sophia Sinclair (Mother) is a graduate of Brandeis University and the Stella Adler Summer Conservatory. Last year she appeared in the Huntington Theater Company’s production of The Corn is Green. Favorite past roles include April in Savage in Limbo, Bee-Bee in SubUrbia, and the Mother in Six Characters in Search of an Author. She is so excited to be working with the GAN-ə-meed Theatre Project!

Ma in her Kerchief

Janet Kenney (Playwright) is an established playwright in and out of the Boston area.  Her work has been produced by CentaStage (including Ma in her Kerchief), Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, The Village Theatre Project(NY), Theatre Emory(GA), Out of Hand Theatre(GA), and Brave New Works Festival(GA), Pandora’s Box (NY), and Underground Railway Theatre, among others.  She is currently working on her memoir, Only When I Breath: adventures in pain.

Jackie Davis (Director) is a member of Theatre Espresso and an Affiliate Artist of the Providence Black Repertory Theatre Company where she last appeared in the lead role of Agnes in Bug. She recently became co-artistic Director of New Urban Theatre Laboratory….lovingly referred to as the NUTLab. Watch for great NUT events. Directorial credits include: Black Arts Drama Showcase (in Boston and New Jersey) produced by Roxbury Crossroads Theatre featuring works by Ed Bullins, Sonia Sanchez, Marvin X and Amiri Baraka, BIRTH for Bold On Labor Day, An American Kaleidoscope for The StreetfeetWomen, and The Eight: Reindeer Monologues.  She’s also recently directed in Company One’s SLAM Boston and has participated as both an actor and director for Boston Playwrights Theatre’s annual Boston Theatre Marathon. She’s directed staged readings of Hurry Tomorrow by Frank Shefton, The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman vs. Mammy Louise and Safreeta Mae for Roxbury Crossroads Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion, Judge Thom Strikes Back by renowned playwright Ed Bullins and Cell Phone Blues by Robert Johnson as part of the University of Massachusetts’ Black History Month Playreading series. Television, Web, and film appearances include Comcast, Visa, Kreme and films including Shuttle, Pink Panther, and The Company Men.

Melisa Baroni (Andrea) has acted locally in The Superheroine Monologues (Phoenix Theatre Artists and Company One); Doubt (Gloucester Stage); Dancing at Lughnasa (Way Theatre Artists); The Kentucky Cycle, Spin, Sacred Hearts, and Flesh & Blood (Zeitgeist Stage). She is also in training to become a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher and has spent the past fall observing Kristin Linklater at Columbia University and teacher training at Shakespeare & Company. Melissa is a current student in the Independent Study Master’s Program through Lesley University. Her focus is Voice & Movement for Actors.

June Murphy Katz (Ruth) is delighted to be performing in in the company of her esteemed colleagues, Director Jackie Davis and ‘daughter-in-law, Melissa Baroni. June has performed in numerous productions in the Boston area, including with the African American Theatre Festival, Roxbury Community College, Another Country Productions and the Lyric West Theatre. She has also been involved in front of and behind the curtain with The Wellesley Players. In addition to acting in educational videos, June co-founded a training company which uses theatre techniques with its business and not-for -profit clients to introduce organizational change.