Wesley Savick (Reverend Sam Gardner) is delighted to be back at CST. He worked on five CST Catalyst Collaborative projects, including writing and directing adaptations of Alan Lightman’s novels Einstein’s Dreams (which toured to the first World Science Festival in NYC and which was produced three times at CST) and Mr g. He was commissioned by Catalyst Collaborative to write and direct a new play based on the life of Henry Molaison, the most-studied brain patient of the 20th century (Yesterday Happened: Remembering H.M., which also featured original music by Tod Machover). He also directed Lisa Loomer’s Distracted, and played the role of Charles Darwin in Melinda Lopez’s premiere production of From Orchids to Octopi (which also toured to the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC).
In addition to his work on science plays at CST, Mr. Savick also wrote and directed Car Talk: The Musical!!!, wrote the adaptation and directed the URT holiday double-bill of The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley and A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote and directed On the Verge by Eric Overmyer for the Nora. He recently worked with James Carroll, Rachel DeWoskin and Writers for Democratic Action to co-write It Can’t Happen Here Again!, an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis which was produced in 91 venues in 71 cities in 24 cities on July 19th, 2024…the day after the Republican National Convention. In October 2024, he premiered a new musical at the Modern Theatre, dramandemocracy, inspired by Arlie Hochschild’s “Strangers In Their Own Land” which he wrote and directed. He also wrote, directed, and composed an original agit-prop musical adaptation of The Handbook of Civilian Defense (published by the U.S. government in 1942) which was produced at the Edinburgh Fringe with his company, Juvenilia at Suffolk University.
Mr. Savick is the author of twenty-seven plays, the director of one hundred professional productions and tenured Professor of Theatre at Suffolk University.
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Lisa Loomer Distracted had its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum, and went on to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Roundabout Theater in 2009. Living Out premiered Mark Taper Forum and was produced at Second Stage in New York in 2003 and has been produced at Seattle Repertory, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Mixed Blood, Borderlands and Theater Works, as well as abroad, in both English and bilingual productions. Loomer is best known for The Waiting Room which went from the Williamstown Theater Festival to the Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, Trinity Repertory Company and then to the Vineyard Theatre in New York. Loomer’s first work for theater was a collaboration entitled A Crowd of Two at the American Place Theatre. This was followed by a one-woman show All By Herselves at the Westside Arts. She began writing plays at the Intar playwrights lab, under the direction of Maria Irene Fornes. Her first play, Birds, was produced by South Coast Repertory. Subsequent works include Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria!; Accelerando; Looking for Angels; Cuts, Chain of Life and Expecting Isabel. Bocon!, a political fable for young audiences, has been seen throughout the country and internationally For the Cornerstone Theatre Company, she wrote Broken Hearts, produced at the Los Angeles Theater Center. Loomer is an alumna of New Dramatists and the recipient of two grants from the NEA and a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Awards include the Jane Chambers Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, a Garland Award and the American Theatre Critics Association Award (twice). She also received an Imagen Award for positive portrayals of Latinos in all media. Loomer’s screenwriting credits include Looking For Angels which was chosen by Sundance for its first co-lab with the Latin American Film Institute in Cuba where she had the opportunity to work with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Other film credits include Girl, Interrupted and Nappily Ever After for Halle Berry, which is currently in development.
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Alec Shiman returns to CST after playing Jesse in URT’s Distracted for which he was recently nominated for the 2014 IRNE award for Most Promising Young Performer. Other credits include Gavroche in Les Misérables, Michael Banks in Mary Poppins, Gypsy (Maine State Music Theatre); Ragtime (Fiddlehead Theatre Company); To Kill a Mockingbird, and James and the Giant Peach (Boston Children’s Theatre). Alec received two IRNE nominations for Best Performance by a Young Actor for Ragtime and To Kill a Mockingbird and a BroadwayWorld Nomination for Les Miserables. In his spare time, Alec enjoys playing sports and spending time with friends.
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April Pressel is very happy to be making her debut with URT. Boston credits include Young Heidi in Follies (Lyric Stage), Amalia in She Loves Me and Sally in You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Longwood Players), Becky U/S in Becky Shaw (Huntington Theatre) and numerous One-Act Play Festivals and Cabarets. New York and Los Angeles credits include Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore, Jean in Falling Lightly, Cinderella in Into the Woods, and Nurse in Hello Again. Television credits include Scrubs, Monk, Sex in the City, Bernie Mac, and Dragnet. She earned her B.F.A. at NYU’s Tisch School. Many thanks to her family and friends, especially her husband and baby girl for their support.
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Sarah Newhouse (Annie Jump Cannon) is delighted to be working with such a stellar group of women here at The Nora. She is a founding company member of Actors’ Shakespeare Project; some ASP favorites include King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, The School for Scandal, The Comedy of Errors, and most recently, Exit the King. Other local appearances include A.R.T., Boston Playwrights, Charles Playhouse, Gloucester Stage, Lyric Stage Company, New Repertory Theatre, and Stoneham Theatre. She has performed regionally in a variety of venues, and has been very fortunate to have travelled as far and wide as Belfast, Moscow and Taiwan. Her NYC credits include the Kraine Theatre, Manhattan Punch Line, Theatre for a New City, and LaMama Etc. Sarah’s recent film credits include The Legend of Lucy Keyes, Beneath Contempt, Bleed For This, and the upcoming I Feel Pretty, with Amy Schumer. She currently serves on the board of the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, and lives in Watertown, MA with her husband and son.
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