THE PLAYERS |
|
Artistic Director
|
Michael F. Toomey (He/Him)Michael F. Toomey is the Artistic Director of the Brooklyn based theater company The Humanist Project. Michael has been performing and teaching Clown for over twenty years. He has worked and studied with master teachers in Clown including Kevin G. Coleman, Jane Nichols, and clowning masters Geovani Fusettie and Philippe Gaulier. Michael is a neurodivergent performer/teacher who combines his unique perspective on play and performance with embodiment of language. He has been a company member at the internationally acclaimed Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA for over twenty years where he is an actor, director and core faculty member. He is a founding member and trustee of Split Knuckle Theatre, which devises new works of theatre touring throughout the world with performances in Bangkok, Athens and Paris. He teaches workshops for professional actors in Fight, Clown and Shakespeare around the country and abroad. He has directed, devised and choreographed numerous shows including The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar and Alice In Wonderland. He is a graduate from LISPA (London International School of Performing Arts) and holds an MFA in Lecoq-based actor created theater from Naropa University.
|
Production Stage Manager
|
Meg Meschino (She/Her)Meg Meschino is a theatre artist born and raised in New York City, and the production stage manager/co-producer for A CRUCIBLE: A Puritanical Celebration of Witches and Turkeys and MAD MAD MAD. She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a degree in Producing and Management. Meg frequently stage manages for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts through their company seasons, as well as for their second year graduation series. Other recent projects include How to Steal an Election with the York Theatre Company (ASM), Travels with Ars Nova (PA), the New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks (PA), and Self Tape (PSM) at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival.
|
The Players
|
Madeleine Maggio (She/Her)Shakespeare & Co: Adriana, Comedy of Errors; Hippolyta/Snout, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Don John, Much Ado About Nothing; Robert Shallow/Bardolph: Merry Wives; Longaville/Jaquenetta, Love’s Labor’s Lost; Helena, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Ensemble: Shakespeare and the Language that Shaped a World; Elizabeth Bennet, Pride & Prejudice; Marianne Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility; Cassie, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley; Elizabeth Darcy, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley; S&Co Regional Tour: Lady Capulet/ Benvolio, Romeo & Juliet; The Humanist Project: Lavinia, Titus Andronicus. Madeleine attended the two-year professional course at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, studied at The Second City in Chicago and is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherast.
|
|
Mia Alexandra (She/Her) Mia Alexandra is an Israeli actor, writer, producer, and clown. After studying at Israel’s top acting school, Nissan Nativ, Mia moved to New York, where she earned an AFA from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her recent credits include Olga in Three Sisters, Y in Passage, Shakespeare in Emilia, and she originated the role of Colonel Meowski in MAD MAD MAD and A Crucible: A Puritanical Celebration of Witches and Turkeys. Mia is excited to return to her devising and movement-based theater roots with The Humanist Project, creating new and thought-provoking art.
She would also like everyone to know she hosts the best dinner parties. www.miaalexandra.com |
|
Fernando Zermeno Garavito (He/They)Born in Tucson, raised in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, Fernando spent his childhood looking up to people who made him feel hopeful; comedians, song-and-dance men and women, actors and actresses, people who made him smile. As time passed, he found himself on stage, and has since searched for what his heroes did for him, made him feel happy. His credits include: Chicago, In The Heights, The Antelope Party, Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters, and Dancing At Lughnasa. He would like to dedicate every performance to his parents and his Chata. “Enjoy Every Sandwich.” @fazg1996
|
|
Jon-Mykul Bowen (He/Him)Jon-Mykul Bowen is (required to tell you that) he’s an actor from St. James, Barbados. He (maybe) worked with Operation Triple Threat in Barbados and (definitely) graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Selected credits include Stuff/Senses (Everybody), Tuzenbach (Three Sisters), and he originated the role of the clown Andreas Pina in MAD MAD MAD. He also became a member of Personal Pizza Party's 2024 actor cohort. He legally only has 90 words for this bio or else, so visit jm-bowen.com.
Seriously silly, professionally playful. |
|
Peter Julien Lane (He/Him)Peter Julien Lane started out as an English major. In college, he further developed as an improv comedian, dancer, mime, clown, and new-fledged musician. He is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts’ conservatory program as well as an alum of the school’s company program. He would like to deeply thank his family and friends for supporting him in his creative work.
|
Past Players
|
Josephine Wilson (She/Her)Josephine Wilson has trained extensively at Shakespeare & Co in the Berkshires and holds her MFA in Acting from Pennsylvania State University. She is a Company Member of the Humanist Project seen in Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, and HUP! Quantum Fairy Tales. She is also a member of Shakespeare on the Fly where she recently played Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing. Josephine has been seen regionally as Annie in Table Manners, Miss Jean Brodie in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, and Nancy in Frozen. She has taught extensively for Lincoln Center and Shakespeare & Company Education, and she currently Chairs the Acting for Film Program at New York Film Academy, teaching adults around the world how to embody Shakespeare, how to deepen Acting Technique and free the breath and body to allow the actor’s imagination and impulses to live. Josephine is a proud member of Actor's Equity.
|
|
Sheila Bandyopahdyay (She/Her)Sheila Bandyopadhyay is a director, movement specialist, performer and devisor of original theater based in Brooklyn, New York. With an extensive background in new work and Shakespeare, Sheila is committed to non-traditional theatrical performance that is literary, music-driven and physical. She enjoys working on ensemble shows and innovative adaptations of classical texts. Productions credits as a director and devisor include plays featured at the West End Theater, the 72nd St Theater Lab, the Brick, The Tank, the Boston Center for the Arts, and the Fringe Festival circuit. Additionally, she has served as a choreographer and/or movement director for productions at Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA), The Humanist Project (NYC), Gallatin NYU (Hamlet, Measure for Measure, The Rape of Lucrece), FSU/Asolo (Twelfth Night, The Aliens) and numerous shows for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts Company. Sheila is Director of Training at Shakespeare & Company’s renowned Center for Actor Training in Lenox, Massachusetts. From 2021-2022, she served as Head of the Professional Training Program and Core Movement Faculty at Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, CA. Prior to Dell’Arte, Sheila was Head of Movement at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.
|
|
Zach libresco (He/Him)Zach Libresco (Dean) daylights as a model for the National World War I Memorial sculpted by Sabin Howard. Previously with The Humanist Project: Dean in H.U.P., Malcolm/Porter/Witch in Macbeth, Lucius/Chiron in Titus Andronicus; Off Broadway: Julio in Double Falsehood(Letter of Marque). Select New York: Crow/Ba in The Snow Queen (Blessed Unrest), Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice (The Shakespeare Forum), Stark in The C*nt (Spicy Witch Productions). Narrative Fiction: Zero Hours Podcast, Wolf 359, Janus Descending, Ars Paradoxica, TidesPodcast. B.A. Wesleyan University. www.zachlibresco.com
I love tuna so much. |
|
Andrew Borthwick-Leslie (He/Him)Andrew Borthwick-Leslie is Co-Founder of The Humanist Project and has been an active member of Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, MA for twenty years. Recent directing: “Frances Goes to War” (Humanist Project); “Julius Caeser”, “Cymbeline” (Shakespeare& Co); “The Long Run” (The Wharton Salon); “The Merchant of Venice”, “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (The Shakespeare Forum);“Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika”, Bogosian’s “Sex Drugs & Rock and Roll” (Bckseet). Recent roles: Casca “Julius Caeser” Guildenstern/Osric “Hamlet” (Shakespeare & Co.); Fuller “Lake Street Extension”, Kip “Raised in Captivity” (Bckseet), Nathan “Madagascar” (Isis Productions); Nightingale in William’s “Vieux Carre” (Egopo). He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, DeSales University, Emerson College, and the University of Maryland among others. He has taught workshops for the Center for Renaissance Studies, the American Bar Association, the New England Homeless Veterans shelter and many more. And, as always, all credit goes to my muse James.
|