Ross MacDonald* (Ellery Forrestal) is delighted to take part in this reading for Song of Extinction and a return to Central Square Theater. It’s been a wee while since being involved in the New England Theater scene, but genuinely happy to be back. Ross has performed in both the UK and USA. He’s work in Massachusetts, included productions with, The Publick Theater Boston, New Repertory Theater, Actors Shakespeare Project, Hanover Theater Worcester, and has been a member of two MIT Catalyst CollaboratIves with The Nora Theater Company. Ross is currently the Theater Director at BB&N Upper School. Ross would like to thank his daughter Marin for all of her support and encouragement.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Will Lyman is well known to Boston audiences, for his work with Commonwealth Shakespeare Co. of which he is a founding Board Member (King Lear, Prospero, Claudius, Brutus), Israeli Stage (Oh God, Ulysses on Bottles), the Huntington (All My Sons, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Dead End), New Rep (Long Day’s Journey into Night, Exits and Entrances, Clean House, Ice Breaker,) Speakeasy (The Dying Gaul), Wheelock (To Kill a Mockingbird), Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (The Wrestling Patient in collaboration with Speakeasy, King of the Jews, A Girl’s War,) and the Nora (Equus, Operation Epsilon). Elsewhere in the U.S. he has performed with the Denver Center, Hartford Stage, Pennsylvania Stage, American Place, George Street Playhouse, NJ Shakespeare, and several Off Broadway productions in New York. He has narrated with the National Symphony (Ivan the Terrible,) and acted in conjunction with the BSO (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the Cleveland Symphony (Every Good Boy Deserves Favor) and the Handel and Haydn Society (Medea.) He is a multiple recipient of the Norton and IRNE Awards and was honored with the Howard Keel Award for service to the Screen Actors Guild. He was given 2013’s Norton Award for Sustained Excellence and 2015’s NETC Award.

Episodic television: Crossbow, Hull High, Threat Matrix, and Commander in Chief. Movies for television: Meltdown, Our Fathers, Three Sovereigns for Sarah, and George Washington.

Film: A Perfect Murder, The Siege, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Mystic River, Little Children (narrator), What Doesn’t Kill You.

He has narrated the PBS public affairs program “Frontline“ since the second season. On a more whimsical note, he also voices the long-running “Most Interesting Man in the World” ads, and has appeared as himself on The Simpsons.

John Kooi recently completed filming on Labor Day with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin scheduled for release later this year.  Regional theater credits include The Company We Keep (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); A Moon For The Misbegotten, Dinah Was, As You Like It and Betrayal (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Hamlet (The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Romance and Danny Casolaro Died For You (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater); Take Me Out (Worcester Foothills Theatre Company); The Glass Menagerie and The Woman In Black (Shadowland Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (The Cleveland Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin conducting); Beyond Therapy (Long Beach Playhouse) and Much Ado About Nothing (Pasadena Shakespeare Company).  Among his New York theater credits are Othello (John Montgomery Theatre Company); Twelfth Night (The Actors’ Company Theatre); Bedroom Farce (Odyssey Theatre) and Romeo and Juliet (Metropolitan Playhouse of New York).  John has a B.A. from St. John’s University (Minnesota) and an M.F.A. from Brandeis University.

Kendall Hodder is making his Nora Theatre Company debut with this production. He is particularly pleased to add the role of Erich Bagge to the list of his portrayals of WWII-era European intellectuals, having recently played Alan Turing in Breaking the Code and Mr. Dussel in The Diary of Anne Frank. Other favorite roles include The Baker in Into the Woods, Young Kipps/Actor in The Woman in Black, and Father Flynn in Doubt. Kendall has appeared in productions with North Shore Music Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, NextDoor Theatre, the Quannapowitt Players, and various other stages in the area. He would like to thank Andy and Mimi for the opportunity to be a part of the Operation Epsilon company.

Owen Doyle performed with The Nora Theatre Company last season as Wilkins in Photograph 51 and previously in The Man Who. Other roles include Frank Lubey in All My Sons (Huntington Theatre), Gooper in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Lyric Stage Company), George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, Simon in A Young Lady From Rwanda (Stoneham Theatre), The Old Man in A Christmas Story, Doc in Mister Roberts, Freddy in Picasso at the Lapin Agile (New Repertory Theatre), Tarleton in Misalliance, and the Friar in Romeo and Juliet (Publick Theatre). He has also performed with Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Foothills Theatre, and Underground Railway Theater. His training includes work at the École Jacques Lecoq in Paris as well as dramaturgy at the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theatre Training.