Strange Fruit: Bios
REATHEL BEAN* has appeared on Broadway in Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change, the plays, Our Town, with Paul Newman, Inherit the Wind, with George C. Scott, and the musicals, Big River, Baby, and Doonesbury. He has also done many plays off-Broadway, such as Avow, Smoke on the Mountain, and Hunting Cockroaches at the Manhattan Theater Club. Regional Theaters include Washington’s Arena Stage, Houston’s Alley Theater, Chicago’s Academy Festival Theater, and New Jersey’s McCarter Theater, George Street Playhouse, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, New Jersey Rep, Playrights Theater of New Jersey, and Luna Stage. Films include Tom Decillo’s Box of Moonlight, Going in Style, with George Burns, Brenda Starr, Apology, The Nanny Diaries, The Good Shepherd, and Lars Von Trier’s award winning Dancer in the Dark. On television, he has been seen in all three of the Law and Order series, as well as The Third Watch, Ed, Spin City, White Collar, and Nurse Jackie.
MATT COHN* Recent New York credits include: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night (New Place Players); The Next War (Vox Theater); The Reluctant Lesbian (Vox Theater/New York International Fringe Festival); The Country Wife (Chernuchin Theatre); Henry V (Kill Mike, Useâ); King Lear (National Black Theater of Harlem); Ms. Bovary (Augmented Seventh Theater); Aliens Exist (Manhattan Repertory Theater). Regional: The Importance of Being Earnest (Northern Stage); Measure for Measure (Elm Shakespeare Company); Rhinoceros (The Mighty Theater); A Little Night Music, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Almost, Maine, and the world premier of A Legendary Romance, among many others (New London Barn Playhouse). Matt Cohn graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Philosophy and Theater. He is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Vox Theater. http://www.matthewcohn.com, www.voxtheater.org
THOMAS COUNTZ is a recent graduate of Syracuse University's Department of Drama and is currently living in NYC.
LULU FOGARTY* NYC: Lancelot (Steven Fechter), Bash –a reading ( 360repco), Lillian Smith Being Heard (Syracuse Stage, Theatre Row, The LOFT at Judson, Dixon Place), SURRENDER (2009 Drama Desk Nomination: Unique Theatrical Experience), Christmas Rappings (dir. Russ Treyz), Henry V (dir. Adam Patterson); Eurydice, Desdemona, The Artifacts, The Mentee (dir. Thom Fogarty). International: Taiwan National Tours of Grandpa's Dream and The Toy Box; Embedded (Edinburgh International Fringe Festival); A Comedy of Errors Workshop (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre , London). Regional: Steel Magnolias (dir. Russ Treyz.) BFA: Syracuse University. www.lulufogarty.com
MORGAN McGUIRE hails from the golden foot hills of California's Sierra Nevada. A graduate of Marymount Manhattan College she now resides in the Borough of Kings. As a writer and an actress she has worked across various NY stages. Her most recent New York acting credits include: TRIPTYCH, CUL DE SAC, Coriolanus, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Morgan spends a good deal of her time with her artistic family at The Shelter www.theshelternyc.org
LARRY POWELL* was most recently seen in Billy Porter's WHILE I YET LIVE at the Duke on 42nd street. You can catch him next in Lucas Hnath's THE CHRISTIANS directed by Les Waters at Playwrights Horizons reprising the role he originated at the 38th Humana Festival of New Plays. Other Recent Highlights: The Mountaintop & The Brothers Size (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Goddess (O’Neill National Music Theatre Conference); The Flower Thief (Horsetrade/FTTF); Dutchman (LABrynth’s NYNY Festival); The Brothers Size (Everyman Theatre); Marcus; Or The Secret of Sweet (City Theatre); Brokeology (Lincoln Center Theatre & KCRep); and 4 Seasons at The Fire This Time Festival and Bronzeville (Robey Theatre Company-- NAACP Award Nomination) Training: Carnegie Mellon University (Roth-Levine Award).
BENJA K THOMAS* Actress, Photographer, Writer. She is a proud member of (S.A.G.) (A.E.A.) and (AFTRA). Stage work includes: Actor 3 in Booty Candy @ Playwrights Horizon written by Robert O’Hara, Unspeakable: the unauthorized story of Richard Pryor at The Apollo Theater, Actor 3 in Booty Candy @The Wilma Theater, Maybel Jackson in Pearl’s Gone Blue” awarded “Best Musical” in the Fringe Festival 2011, Pigfoot Mary in Pigfoot Mary Says Goodbye to the Harlem Renaissance” a role written specially for her by playwright and actor Daniel Carlton, Mayme in Intimate Apparel , Johnnie Mae in American Menu, which she won an A.U.D.E.L.C.O. Gertha/Mistress Motel in INSURRECTION: Holding History, The Lady in Red in For Colored Girls. Recent Film credits includes Nurse Pam in Chronically Metropolitan starring Chris Noth and Mary-Louise Parker and Mama in Friends of the People to date.
She has won an A.D.U.L.C.O. for her role in American Menu. As a photographer her photography was featured in the premiere issue of Black Female Photographer (BEF) September 2013. As a writer her play “Choices” about HIV/AIDS for teens had been seen in Public School across the city as well as featured at City College for Black History Month
DONNA TRINKOFF is the Artistic Director of Amas Musical Theatre since 1994 where she has developed and produced lot of new musicals. Donna holds a BA in English and Theatre from SUNY Binghamton. She is a graduate of the National Theatre Institute, a theatre training program at the Eugene O’Neill Center in Waterford, CT and she received a Certificate of Merit from the Drama Studio in London. Donna is a member of the League for Professional Theatre Women. In 1998, she received the New York Municipal Art Society Award of Merit and the 2003 Galaxy Award from the NY Women’s Association.