Cast

Cynthia Alvarez

Cynthia is an LA based actor originally from El Paso, Texas. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance from the University of Texas at El Paso, where she played a myriad of colorful characters, her favorite being Finea from Labyrinth of Desire by Caridad Svich. Cynthia will be graduating with a Masters of Fine Arts in acting from the University of California Los Angeles in June 2021, in the midst of a global pandemic, demonstrating what she considers to be her best attribute, tenacity. She would like to express her gratitude to professor Michael Hackett and Sarah Grunnah for presenting her with the wonderful opportunity of playing Doña Marcela, and the entire technical team that made this experience possible.

Frank Demma

Frank Demma is a young actor and writer from Petaluma, California, the one-time egg capital of the world. (No longer) He graduated from Novato High School/Marin School of the Arts in 2017. They don’t miss him there. He now attends UCLA, pursuing a BA in Theater. He enjoys poetry, design, aioli, and board games. He comes from a family of hard-working storytellers. Into the future, he wants to explore the stories we’ll tell our children, test his limitations, and write plays for his friends.

Shubra Dubey

Shubhra Dubey is an LA and SF based actor currently pursuing UCLA's Theater BA with an emphasis in Acting. She recently starred in a UCLA mainstage production of "The Lesson" which was one of her favorite theater performances in her career. She is also interested in film and television acting and is represented by Cast Images Agency in the Bay Area. Shubhra is trained in the Meisner technique from the Bay Area Acting Studio, California State Summer School of the Arts, and the American Conservatory Theater in San Fransico. She also loves comedy and is part of UCLA's premier comedy club, Shenanigans, where Shubhra performs improv and stand-up. Digitals and other media can be found on https://shubhradubey01.wixsite.com/shubhradubey .

Joseph Henderson

Joseph Henderson is an LA based Actor who is receiving his MFA at UCLA’s actingprogram. He is an actor, writer, director and producer wanting to create his own work that accurately portrays the beauty of people of colors, specifically African Americans. He serves as a associate producer and acting member at Hero Theatre, a theatre company based in Los Angeles and New York. Joseph received his Bachelors in honors from Jackson State University, and HBCU (Historically Black College and University) where he received an award for the highest GPA in his department with over 300 hours of community service. He is a Kennedy Center nominee and has worked on several short films and plays throughout his career.

David Kepner

David is an LA-based actor, holding a Master’s in Acting from UCLA and a Bachelor’s in Theater & Secondary Education from Boise State University. David is an avid actor and filmmaker earning most of his experience from theater, film, and original comedic shorts. David’s micro-short film and directorial debut, Georganne.MOV, won Best Mockumentary Micro-Film at the Portland Comedy Film Festival (2020). David also received the Silver Tripod award for best story for his short film, Micnic, at Campus MovieFest (2019). David has also performed in numerous plays, recently playing as the titular role in Aphra Behn’s The Rover at the historic Freud Playhouse (2020). David continues to display his acting abilities in original sketch comedies and other performative projects that come his way. When he’s not working, David loves to play video games, order take-out, get scratched by his cat, and to leisurely ride his motorcycle around town to prove that he owns the ultimate form of transportation.

Jacob Louis

Jacob Louis is a bicoastal Mexican-American actor, singer, composer, educator, and theater director. Jacob is a recent graduate from UCLA earning his M.F.A. in Acting for Theatre, Film, and Television. Recent films Jacob has acted in include Every Hidden Thing (feature) and The Inbetween Place. His most recent professional stage performances include Twelfth Night, Moby Dick Rehearsed at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum and You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up: Selected Readings From the Mueller Report at LA’s Saban Theatre. He is a recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Acting Scholarship as well as the Hugh Downs Acting for Television Scholarship, the Jack Nicholson Acting Scholarship and resides both in Los Angeles, CA., and Atlanta, GA. He is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, The Recording Academy, LULAC, Alpha Psi Omega, Educational Theatre Association, and the International Theatre Schools Association.

Jacob Salazar

Jacob Salazar is happy to be an LA based actor! Receiving his BA in theatre education with Texas teaching certification at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, he student taught with the Corpus Christi and Frenship School Districts. After graduation he immediately moved to LA to pursue his MFA in Acting and was cast in the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s touring production of La Victima. Some of his favorite theatre performances include Bernard Ghilchrist in David Rabe’s Good for Otto (awarded Excellent Ensemble Member KCACTF) Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (awarded The Molly Risso Award in Classical Acting KCACTF), and creating the role of Joe Salinas in a cowritten, codirected devised work created with the ten members of UCLA cohort 7 entitled The Bridge. Jacob continues to work as an educator making trips back home to Texas to work with high schools and summer camps whenever possible. For more information feel free to check out www.jacobaverysalazar.com where you can find how to get in touch!

Kendale Winbush

Originally from Hollywood, Kendale grew up all over the California southland, but mainly, Altadena.  Next, was NYC for study at Columbia University, then Madrid and Oahu were also his home for a time. Now, he resides in Los Angeles. A choreographer, director, and early childhood educator, Kendale is a recent MFA graduate of Acting, from UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television.

Taji Senior

Taji Senior is a multidisciplinary actress, writer and theater maker. She is the recipient of 2017 B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Drama. Her most recent solo project, amendment: the making of an american myth, or the slowing sipping of a peacock tea, is the recipient of three 2020 B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Original Script, Outstanding Digital Production, and Outstanding Direction. Her solo performance, ‘A’ (What the Black Girl Found While Searching for God) was produced as a radio play by The Parsnip Ship (NY) and her solo performance, devour., was an official selection of LadyFest 2019 produced by The Tank NYC. Some of her otheractingcredits include: The We Are Film Series (Issa Rae Productions), Comedy of Errors (Austin Shakespeare), Monroe (Austin Playhouse), and Her Dream Deferred: The Lives That Should Have Been (The African-American Policy Forum). She is also the co-host and producer of The Negro Problem Podcast.

Jessica Toltzis

Jessica Toltzis is an LA-based actor who recently graduated from UCLA’s MFA Acting program in March 2021. Her short film Georgeanne.MOV, which she wrote and starred in, won Best Micro Mockumentary at the 2020 Portland Comedy Film Festival. Some of her favorite theater performances include #21507 in Where the Lovelight Gleams in LA (winner of The Paula Vogel Prize and semi-finalist for The Relentless Award from The American Playwriting Foundation), Touchstone in As You Like It at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Penelope Pennywise in Urinetown the Musical (Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award, Best Supporting Actress). Jessica trained at The British American Drama Academy (BADA, full scholarship), The Moscow Art Theatre, The National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and at Upright Citizens Brigade. Jessica is also a sketch comedian and has created many characters, which can be seen at jessicatoltzis.com. Jessica is represented by Framework Entertainment and is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA.

Creative Team

Jonathan Burke

Jonathan Burke is a Los Angeles-based sound designer and mixing engineer for theater, live sound and opera. His work has been heard across the country, off-Broadway and in regional theaters. Locally, Burke is the resident sound designer for 5 Star Theatricals and has designed shows for Walt Disney Concert Hall, Geffen Playhouse, Rubicon Theatre Company and many others. He has mixed for both L.A. Opera and L.A. Philharmonic, and has worked on additional projects at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and Hollywood Bowl. Most recently he designed and mixed The Tempest, a joint production with L.A. Phil and The Old Globe at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Burke grew up in Cambridge, England, and lived in Hong Kong before moving to the United States. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, he was the resident sound designer for two seasons at Pittsburgh’s City Theater Company.

Burke studied at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, holds a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts. He is a member of USA 829 where he also serves on the Sound Design exam committee.

Sarah Grunnah

Sarah Grunnah (née Brew) is a dramaturg and translator, and has assisted in the literary departments of several theatres in the U.S. Her first translation/adaptation by Tirso de Molina, Love the Doctor (El amor médico), received its world premiere in 2011. In addition to her work as a theatre practitioner, Sarah’s writing centres on translation and adaptation of the comedia; her thesis addressed the topic of gender in modern, English-language performances of Tirso’s comedia urbana. She holds a D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in Spanish from the University of Oxford, an MFA in Dramaturgy from UMass, and a BA in English from UNC Charlotte. In the 2020-21 academic year, Sarah is an Ahmanson-Getty Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA’s Clark Library, where she is part of Barbara Fuchs’ project, Resituating the Comedia.

Michael Hackett

He has directed for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the Royal Theatre at The Hague; the Centrum Sztuki Studio and Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw; Santa Fe Short Story Festival; Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; Los Angeles Opera (children's series); Getty Center and Getty Villa, Musica Angelica; Antaeus Company; Geffen Playhouse; the Hammer Museum; and 15 radio productions for L.A. Theater Works including Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest with Charles Busch (nominated for two Audie Awards). He was the artistic producer for Robert Wilson’s King Lear at Studio One, Metromedia in Hollywood and was co-producer, with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, for two radio plays directed by Peter Sellars. Familiar to opera audiences in Southern California, Hackett has lectured extensively for the Los Angeles Opera and, for these activities, was given the Fifth Annual Peter Hemmings Award by the Opera League of Los Angeles. He has directed five productions in Poland. In March 2020, he was awarded the Witkacy Prize by the Polish Centre of the International Theatre Institute for "outstanding achievements in promoting Polish theater in the world." Hackett has a B.A. in English from Boston College and received his Ph.D. in Drama and the Humanities from Stanford University.

Ana Nguyen

Anabela Nguyen is a second year student in TFT with an acting emphasis. They were last seen starring in Mud, an MFA One Act directed by Mae Fae and provided accompaniment for Michael Hackett's production of Quad last year. They are super excited to work with Michael once again on this project. Though this is their first experience doing dramaturgical work for a show, they thoroughly enjoyed the research and fell in love with the play along the way.

Makela Yepez (also played Enrique in this production)

Makela Yepez was born and raised in a small town in the Redwoods of Northern California and now resides in Los Angeles. Studying theater at UCLA, he’s found passions in acting, directing and writing as well as photography and filmmaking. On his free time you can find him listening to Biggie and getting his friends to watch his favorite films or read his newest writing. As a Chicano and Indigenous artist, Makela hopes to create and tell new stories for marginalized groups of people and show humanity in all.