Chris Bohjalian - Playwright

Chris Bohjalian is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 21 books. His work has been translated into 35 languages and three times become movies.

His new novel, “The Red Lotus,” was published and debuted as a national bestseller: an American man vanishes on a rural road in Vietnam and his girlfriend, an emergency room doctor trained to ask questions, follows a path that leads her home to the very hospital where they met. The New York Times said it had an “elegant noose of a plot” and “Bohjalian is a pleasure to read…a writer with a big heart and a deep compassion for his characters.”

The special 25th anniversary edition of his 1995 magical realist novel about global climate, “Water Witches,” was also just published.

His 2018 novel, “The Flight Attendant,” debuted as a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and National Indiebound Bestseller. It is currently being filmed for an 8-hour HBO Max limited series, starring Kaley Cuoco (who is also an Executive Producer), Rosie Perez, Sonoya Mizuno (“Crazy Rich Asians” and “Maniac”), Michiel Huisman (“Game of Thrones” and “The Haunting of Hill House”), and T.R. Knight (“Grey’s Anatomy”). Susanna Fogel (“Booksmart” and “The Spy Who Dumped Me”) is directing the first two episodes.

He is also a playwright and screenwriter. He has adapted his novel, “Midwives,” for a play, which premiered January 21, 2020 at the George Street Playhouse, and was directed by David Saint. Broadway World said of it, “The fine playwriting by Bohjalian, the directorial talents of the Playhouse’s Artistic Director, David Saint, and the show’s accomplished cast make this play unforgettable.”

His first play, “Grounded,” premiered at the 59 East 59th Theatres in New York City in the summer of 2018 and is now available as an audiobook and eBook, “Wingspan.”

His books have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Hartford Courant, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Bookpage, and Salon.

His awards include the Walter Cerf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts; the ANCA Freedom Award for his work educating Americans about the Armenian Genocide; the ANCA Arts and Letters Award for The Sandcastle Girls, as well as the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal; the New England Society Book Award for The Night Strangers; the New England Book Award; Russia’s Soglasie (Concord) Award for The Sandcastle Girls; a Boston Public Library Literary Light; a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Trans-Sister Radio; a Best Lifestyle Column for “Idyll Banter” from the Vermont Press Association; and the Anahid Literary Award. His novel, Midwives,was a number one New York Times bestseller, a selection of Oprah’s Book Club, and a New England Booksellers Association Discovery pick. He is a Fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He has written for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Reader’s Digest, and The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. He was a weekly columnist in Vermont for The Burlington Free Press from 1992 through 2015.

Chris graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from Amherst College. He has been awarded Honorary Degrees as well from Amherst, Champlain College, and Castleton University.

He lives in Vermont with his wife, the photographer Victoria Blewer.

Their daughter, Grace Experience, is a young actor in New York City. Among the audiobooks she has narrated are Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands and The Guest Room.

Lisa Rothe - Director / Dramaturg

Lisa Rothe is a NYC based freelance theater director, acting /vocal coach and educator. She was nominated for SDC's Joe A. Callaway Award for Direction for Hold These Truths by Jeanne Sakata, produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble in NYC. The play was also nominated for a Drama Desk award for Best Solo Performance by actor Joel de la Fuente and the Tony Award winning TheatreWorks/Silicon Valley production recently won 3 Theatre Bay Area Awards for Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Performer and Outstanding Production. Other productions at The Cultch Historic Theatre in Vancouver, Barrington Stages, The Guthrie Theater, ACT in Seattle, Playmakers Repertory Theatre, the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, the SoloNova Festival in NYC, and was produced by Hang A Tale at the Sheen Center in NYC.

Currently the Director of New Works at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Lisa was thrilled to produce the 4th annual Origins KC New Works Festival and was in the process of producing the 5th Festival in March 2020, when it was canceled because of social distancing precautions due to COVID-19 . Alongside Angel Desai and Grace Zandarski, she has been a co-Artistic Director of The Actor's Center in NYC for the past three years. Lisa is also a recent co-President of the League of Professional Theatre Women, is on the Artistic Advisory Council of Epic Theatre Ensemble, on the Advisory Boards of Houses on the Moon and the Detroit Public Theatre, a Usual Suspect with New York Theatre Workshop, an Artistic Affiliate and Audrey Fellow with New Georges, a Drama League alum, a fox Fellow alum and a member of the National Theater Conference. Lisa received her MFA from NYU's Graduate Acting Program and was subsequently invited by mentor and teacher Zelda Fichandler to be part of the inaugural year of NYU's Directing program for alumni of the MFA Acting program. She also studied with the legendary Joseph Chaikin in his workshop for actors and directors.

Lisa's guiding principle is 'helping people access their voices in creative ways on a global scale' and tends to be drawn to intimate stories about people who are discovering their voices and have big things to say. She has a passion for developing and directing new plays, reinventing the classics, and is a fierce advocate for women and telling their stories. In her coaching work, Lisa focuses on helping people connect their body, voice, mind and spirit through a series of playful explorations and practical methodologies to help present themselves in the most grounded and authentic way possible.

Lisa has workshopped, developed, and directed hundreds of new works with multiple award winning writers. In New York, she has developed and presented work at HERE, NYTW, New Georges, The Lark, The Culture Project, The Foundry, Ensemble Studio Theater, The 52nd Street Project, Naked Angels, Epic Theater Ensemble, Summer Play Festival, among others. As the Director of Global Exchange at The Lark in NYC for over five years (2010-2015), she provided expanded opportunities for playwrights, aimed at advancing new work to production, both nationally and globally (facilitating reciprocal translation programs with China, Mexico, Romania & Russia).

Some favorite recent directing work: Steel Magnolias at The Guthrie Theatre, Fun Home and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Amber Waves by James Still at Indiana Repertory Theatre, In My Chair, written and performed by Eva DeVirgilis at Virginia Repertory Theatre/Cadence Theatre, WIld Abandon, written and performed by Leenya Rideout at the Irish Repertory Theatre, Sooner/Later by Allyson Currin at Cincinnati Playhouse, and Confederates by Suzanne Bradbeer at Theatreworks (nominated for 8 Bay Area Critics Circle Awards).

Along with composer Kim Sherman and librettist Margaret Vandenburg, Lisa has been developing a new music-theater piece about Ada Byron (Ada), Lord Byron's daughter (who developed the prototype of modern computer language in the early 1830's), which was presented as a part of the Center for Contemporary Opera’s Development Series. For more info about the development of the piece, click here.

Lisa was raised in Dundee, Illinois and before a commitment to theater, she took a detour into the world of biomedical engineering at the University of Iowa, where she developed a Chekhovian theater company in the lounge of her dorm. So much for engineering.

One of Lisa's favorite organizations is Dr. Jane Aronson’s World Wide Orphan Foundation (WWO), where she spent a few summers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, developing theatre and arts programming with orphaned HIV+ children and teens, and sharing the work with local communities, to help destigmatize AIDS/HIV. Please support them if you can.

Mary Bacon (Karen) *

Productions with DTF: Mrs. Christie by Heidi Armbruster, Outside Mullingar and Theresa Rebeck’s The Scene with Tim Daly, Mauritius, and The Novelist with Michael Cristofer. Broadway: Rock N’ Roll, Arcadia. Off-Broadway: Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist, Horton Foote’s Harrison, TX, and Lucinda Coxon’s Happy Now with Primary Stages; Giant at the Public; Days to Come and Lortel and Drama Desk-nominated Women Without Men and The Madras House at The Mint; Becky Shaw, Second Stage; Eccentricities of A Nightingale, The Late Christopher Bean and Happy Birthday with TACT. Regional includes: The Widow Lincoln, Ford’s Theatre; Just like Us, Denver Center; Children, Westport Playhouse/ Williamstown Theatre Festival; Crimes of the Heart, McCarter; Don Juan, Seattle Rep/The McCarter/The Old Globe; Molly Smith Metzler’s premiere of The May Queen, Chautauqua Theatre Festival and others.

TV/FILM: "Blacklist", "Madam Secretary", "Elementary", "Donny!", "Law and Order SVU", "Boardwalk Empire", "The Good Wife", "Mildred Pierce", "Jonny Zero", "Third Watch", PBS’s "American Experience", Nickelodeon’s "The Gaveltons". BFA from Carnegie Mellon. Member of The Actors Center. Founding member with Heidi Armbruster of DTF’S Women Artists Writing.

Grace Experience (Emily) *

Credits include: The Wolves (Lyric Stage Company), Beauty and the Beast (Berkshire Theatre Group), The Turn of the Screw (Middlebury Actors’ Workshop), Our Town (Heartwood Regional Theatre), Beardo (Pipeline Theatre Company), The Thanksgiving Play (Lyric Stage Company), Into the Woods (Heartwood Regional Theatre), Frankenstein (Cardinal Stage Company), Some People Hear Thunder (The Space at Capital Repertory) and Zodiac (a pilot starring Corbin Bernsen). Grace is an award-winning audiobook narrator for Penguin Random House Audio and a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. GraceExperience.com

Sathya Sridharan (Silas/Captain) *

Sathya Sridharan is actor and writer from St. Louis, MO. Off- Broadway: India Pale Ale (MTC), An Ordinary Muslim (NYTW), Two Mile Hollow (WP Theater), The Winter’s Tale (The Public Shakespeare Mobile Unit), Hamlet (Sheen Center), This Is It How It Ends (59E59 Summer Shorts). NY Theater: Ultimate Beauty Bible (Page 73), Frontieres Sans Frontieres (Bushwick Starr), Mechanics of Love (ToByFor Productions). Regional: Our Town (Portland Center Stage), Hapgood (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Philadelphia Story, As You Like It (Chautauqua Theatre Company). Film: Premise, All The Little Things We Kill, Bikini Moon, Dastaar (SXSW, IndyFest), Tourists (Nantucket, CAAM, NJFF), Open Roads (Nantucket). Television: “Succession”, “Night Time”, ”Elementary”, “The Tick”, “Blindspot”, “The Blacklist”, “Madam Secretary”, and “Younger”. Sathya was a 2013 Princess Grace Award Winner (Grace Le Vine). MFA: NYU

Carolynn Richer (Stage Manager) *

Regional: Dorset Theatre Festival: Cry It Out, Dig, Slow Food, Berkshire Theatre Group: What the Jews Believe, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All…, Little Shop of Horrors, Folger Theatre: The Way of the World, Yale Repertory Theatre: Accidental Death of an Anarchist, A Streetcar Named Desire, Stones in His Pockets; Off Broadway: Westside Theatre: Stuffed, Primary Stages: The Confession of Lily Dare, Downstairs, Colt Coeur: Joan, Ma-Yi Theater Company: Peer Gynt and the Norwegian Hapa Band, Atlantic Theater Company: These Paper Bullets! BA: University of Notre Dame MFA: Yale School of Drama.