Olivia D’Ambrosio

Olivia D’Ambrosio is a Boston-based Playmaker, or versatile theatre professional who works as a director, actor, producer and teaching artist. She is honored to direct Intimate Exchanges after serving as Director of Voice, Speech & Text on last season’s Arcadia. Special thanks to Lee for both opportunities. A member of Actors’ Equity, Olivia’s performance credits include: Nora Theatre Co (two-week extension, Arcadia), Bridge Rep, New Rep, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co, Trinity Rep, Asolo Rep, Paper Mill Playhouse, and Hartford Stage. She founded and is the Producing Artistic Director of Bridge Repertory Theater, currently in its fourth season. Under her leadership, Bridge Rep has: produced thirteen fully realized mainstage productions, creating nearly 300 paid work opportunities and serving close to 10,000 audience members; multiplied its operating budget by a factor of 10; received more than 20 nominations from the Independent Reviewers of New England and Boston Theater Critics Association, including an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script; and enjoyed consistent media coverage on outlets including WGBH and the Boston Globe. Olivia teaches Voice & Speech in the MFA Musical Theatre program at the newly merged Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and in the Department of Theatre Arts at MIT. She holds an MFA in Acting from Brown University / Trinity Rep, and a BA in Theatre & Dance from Amherst College (summa cum laude). She is honored to serve on the Board of Directors of the Theater Community Benevolent Fund (www.tcbf.org). Finally, Olivia intends to run for the City Council of Cambridge, where her primary focus will be on advocacy for the arts. www.oliviadambrosio.com | @_playmaker___

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Max Jackson*

Max Jackson* (Peter Shaw) he/him, is happy to be back at CST, having appeared previously as Riff Raff in 2023’s The Rocky Horror Show, last spring’s reading of Song of Extinction, and Arcadia back in 2016. Having worked the stage in Boston and DC since he was 11, he appeared in shows such the Keegan Theatre’s The Full Monty, the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Henry IV, Part 2, and after graduating RADA in 2022, returned to DC for Studio Theatre’s Love, Love, Love and Edge of the Universe’s A Number, which he performed with his real life father David Bryan Jackson. As a multi-instrumentalist, he doubled as part of the band in Rocky Horror and has composed and recorded music for Song of Extinction, CST’s Cloud 9, and Mosaic Theater’s web-series Inherit the Windbag.

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

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Liana Asim

Liana Asim is a playwright/actor/director and Founding Playwright-In-Residence for Resilience Arts Collective.  She is also a 2016/17 Company One PlayLab Fellow. She recently directed the world premiere of a family musical, The Hairy Scary, for The Outside the Box festival 2016. She was recently seen on stage as Mai Tamba in The Convert at Central Square Theater (winner of the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production).  She also played Marcus Lycus in the Stoneham Theatre production of A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum. A 2015 BCA and Company One PlayLab Fellow, her full-length plays include Bedfellows, The King of Love Is Dead, Slut Walk or A Play About Marilyn Monroe, The Hairy Scary (musical co-written w/J. Asim and Joshua Stephen Kartes.) Her work has been developed at BCA/Company One, Boston Theatre Marathon, Fresh Ink Theatre, Davenport Studios NYC, Playwright’s Platform and Emerson College in Boston, MA.  She studied performance art at Northwestern University and screenwriting and playwriting at Emerson College.  She is the proud wife of author Jabari Asim, mother to five brilliant children, and grandmother of two delightful grandbabies. She believes in the power of LIVE theatre to change the world.

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Kat Nakaji

Kat Nakaji (Props Master) is making her Underground Railway Theater debut.  Her other Props Master credits include Carrie the Musical (SpeakEasy Stage), Bad Jews (SpeakEasy Stage), Sugar (ArtsEmerson), Baritones Unbound (ArtsEmerson), Two Dance Stories (Brandeis Theater), and The Importance of Being Earnest (The Longwood Players).  She has also served as the Asst. Prop Master for Finding Neverland (The A.R.T.) and as Props Craftsperson for Waitress(The A.R.T.).  When she is not around town propping shows, Kat works as the Technical Supervisor at the A.R.T. for the HRDC (Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club). She holds her BFA in Technical Theater and Design from Emerson College.

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Ariel Welch

Ariel Welch (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to join The Convert team in her first production with Underground Railway Theater and Central Square Theater.  She received a BFA from The Theater School at DePaul University in Chicago, IL and is excited to be back in Boston. Her recent Boston area stage management works include Dry Land and The Flick with Company One Theatre, The Wizard of Oz and Chicago with Weston Drama Workshop, Shelter of Last Resort for the XXPlaylab workshop series with Company One Theatre and The Boston Center for the Arts, and The Little Blue One with Juventas New Music Ensemble.

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