THE DIRECTORS
ROBERT ARMIN (Director, The Change) is a director, playwright and audiobook narrator. His stage adaptation of Letters from the Inside was chosen one of the five best plays of the 2006/2007 New Jersey theater season by the Star-Ledger. He revised the book and directed the 2006 revival of What Makes Sammy Run? and wrote and directed Stalking The Nightmare, based on stories by fantasist Harlan Ellison, recently published as Harlan Ellison’s Mortal Dreads. His revised version of The Male Animal has been presented at several regional theaters. He directed The Broadway Musicals of 1964 at Town Hall and several staged readings at The York Theater. Other NYC directing credits include Side By Side By Seymour Glick, Say Darling, My Sister Eileen, Soul Survivors and 'S Wonderful - The Songs of Ira Gershwin. His first novel, The Flash of Midnight, is available in paperback.
ARIEL LEIGH COHEN (Director, Not Funny) is a recent graduate of the University of Vermont’s Theater program. She most recently Stage Managed Hollywood! Hollywood! at Write Act and directed Visitor From Forest Hills at the Royall Tyler Theater in Vermont. Previous roles played include Woman 1 in Closer Than Ever (Champlain College), Premier Dancer in Rent (Flynn Mainstage), Mrs. Shin in The Good Woman of Setzuan (UVM), Woman 1 in Songs for a New World (Stowe Theater Guild), Soloist in Godspell (DiCapo Opera Theater, Off-Broadway), and Janet in The Rocky Horror Puppet Show (Main St Landing). She has also performed in cabarets at Dylan’s Lounge NYC, Syracuse Stage NY and NJ Workshop for the Arts. She recently attended the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts in London, UK with a concentration in Shakespeare. Thanks to the fantastic cast and crew! arieleigh.wix.com/arielleighcohen
CONSTANCE GEORGE'S (Director, A Troubled Heart) short plays have been seen in the 15-Minute Play Festival, the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, the Summer Shorties Festival and several Players Theatre Short Play Festivals. Directing includes A Girl's Guide to Chaos, Under Milkwood (Yorkville Rep), Gentleman and Scholar (Deptford Players), Danny and Rose (Algonquin Productions), Jane Takes It In (Downtown Urban Theatre Festival), as well as Relative Values and Outward Bound, with the Triangle Theatre.
JAY MICHAELS (Director, Monster) BUMP represents a return to the career Jay Michaels had hoped for. His childhood dream of playing monsters and ghouls was sidetracked in 1982 when he was cast in Raymond Gasper’s acclaimed production of Hamlet at the Lion Theater, thus forcing him into a career as a director and performer of classical works, winning awards and praise from numerous outlets including Theatre World, American Theatre, ASCAP, and The New York Times. While he had hopes for New Moon Entertainment, American-International, and Hammer Films, he ended up at The Marriott Marquis Theatre, Lincoln Center, The Pearl Theatre, Theatre Off-Park, Primary Stages, HBO Summer Stage, Theatre for the New City, the Midtown International Theatre Festival, The Fringe, and LaMama. Even his concurrent career as a producer with a specialty in marketing & promotion did not bring him to Famous Monsters of Filmland or Fangoria but to three Broadway productions, five national tours, numerous off- and off-off Broadway works, and film & television projects. He co-founded Genesis Repertory (with Mary E. Micari) – designed to give the emerging artist a chance to work in the professional theatre – only to once again be forced into producing quality classical works, new plays and musicals, and fostering playwright and acting programs as well as an acclaimed Musical Master Class. Today, Genesis has a thriving studio and school in Brooklyn called the M Center (but the M does not stand for monster). He did manage to get productions of Doctor Faustus, Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, and War of the Worlds done (plus there were witches in his Macbeth, and his Oedipus and Richard III did get pretty gory at the end). Happily, he did play the title role in the film, Norman Normal, a fantasy in which he was turned into a bug. But this was short-lived as he went on to appear in Eliana Ujueta’s cutting-edge crime drama, Beneath the Rock, and Ric Serena’s comedy, Twelve Fingers. Sadly, his film-directing debut – winning acclaim at the Anthology Film Archives and receiving international distribution, was not a horror film… it was an adaptation of … Hamlet. Even in his personal life, after years of immersing himself in demons and vampires… he married an angel. He gives great thanks to friend and colleague, Andrew Rothkin for helping put his career back on track.
JAMES MONOHAN (Director, Fang) likes wearing multiple hats as a video producer, director, shooter, and editor. Recent projects include a reality/comedy web series called Tales of Tinder, profiles of 3D printing innovators for Maker Media, and various projects for Chris4Life (a colon cancer foundation). He also produces and co-hosts a popular podcast for writers and fans of story craft called The Narrative Breakdown and is the creator of a brainstorming iPhone app called The Storyometer. He's happy to be doing theater again after an overly long hiatus. His most recent play was Bastard at the "Notes from the Underground Festival," for which he was recognized as "Best Director." Many thanks to Andrew and Jay, his fellow directors, and his talented cast, as well as Cheryl and Marley for their love and support.
LESLIE C. NEMET (Director, Scrambled) has directed plays, musicals and world premieres at various venues throughout New York, including the Lucille Lortel, Abingdon Theatre, The Players Theatre, Stage Left, and many well-known festivals. She will be directing the upcoming web series "On the Prowl" and was recently the Assistant Director on the film "Canvas." She has taught acting Off-Broadway at the Snapple Theatre and coaches privately as well. As a writer, she has penned several projects, including an interactive version of The Sopranos (complete with music) and a one-woman show, Life 101. As an actress, Leslie has appeared in Broadway workshops, Off-Broadway, in television, film, radio and webisodes. You can currently see her perform Off-Broadway in Olympics Uber Alles and in several web series. This is dedicated to Mothers and Daughters everywhere! Thanks Mom (and Dad too)!
ANDREW ROTHKIN (Director, Call Upon) returns to directing after a three year hiatus. He last staged Ninja Motorcycle Babes. Favorite directing projects include contemporary classics (including Inge’s The Tiny Closet, Strindberg’ Motherlove, and Williams’ The Lady of Larkspur Lotion), new plays (such as Psychodrama, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, and Hitchcock Blonde), and plays Andrew also penned (Voice, Danny, and Meredith’s Ring, and many others). Andrew has also led some devised pieces and has directed hundreds of children as an artist-in-residence throughout NYC.) www.AndrewRothkin.com
SCOTT H. SCHNEIDER (Director, The Greenhouse) has directed numerous showcases and readings Off and Off-Off Broadway, at venues including The Quaigh, The Harold Clurman, The Nat Horne, The Actors’ Studio, DR2, T.S.I., and The Friar’s Club. Favorites include Drunks with Guns (the inaugural production at lower Manhattan’s Access Theatre) and Burnout, both with playwright Bob Mahnken; the long running The Summer They Stopped Making ‘Ludes by Steven Tanenbaum; and the rock musical The Last American. He has worked as an Equity Stage Manager, a Production Manager for opera and Off Broadway; and Lighting Designer (most notably for the delle’Arte Opera Company and for Club Med in the states and abroad) Graduate of Wesleyan University, Artistic Director of Bad Dog Productions and former Treasurer of the Stage Managers’ Association.
MELISSA SKIRBOLL (Director, Taste of Hell) is a director, writer, actor and producer. Currently directing I Have It by Bekah Brunstetter at this year's Estrogeius Festival, her other recent directing work includes Andrew Rothkin's Father's Day at MRT, NOLA: Three Plays About Home by Vivian Neuwirth for the Estrogenius Festival 2013. She won Best Director (Short Form) at the Planet Connections Theater Festivity for her work on The Closet by Amy Gray Piper in 2012, and was nominated for her direction of Straight Faced Lies by Mark Jason Williams in 2013 and her play Hell is where the Heart Is was nominated for four awards and took home two prizes in 2010. She directed her own plays, Blood is Thicker as part of the 2013 SWAN Day celebration at the Abingdon Theater, and Pizza for Life as part of Ego Actus NYC Icon Play in November of 2011. She is proud to have directed readings of 14 different 10-minute plays in Abingdon Theatre's Benefit Challenge Series since 2011. She also directed and produced Girlfriend Experience by Paul Tarantino at the Next Stage Theater in Hollywood, CA.
ERIN SOLÉR (Director. UFO Weather) is a director and actor. As a director, she most recently worked on a site-specific production of Chocolate with RAL Productions. In New York, she has worked on various pieces composed by Chris Wade, her favorite collaborator, including Such Sweet Sorrow (Theatre For the New City) and 29LiVeS: Holidaze, as well as The Lightning Field (Outstanding Play award, Fringe Festival) and Baal (Columbia University). Regionally: Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof, Where the Wild Things Are.
ARIEL LEIGH COHEN (Director, Not Funny) is a recent graduate of the University of Vermont’s Theater program. She most recently Stage Managed Hollywood! Hollywood! at Write Act and directed Visitor From Forest Hills at the Royall Tyler Theater in Vermont. Previous roles played include Woman 1 in Closer Than Ever (Champlain College), Premier Dancer in Rent (Flynn Mainstage), Mrs. Shin in The Good Woman of Setzuan (UVM), Woman 1 in Songs for a New World (Stowe Theater Guild), Soloist in Godspell (DiCapo Opera Theater, Off-Broadway), and Janet in The Rocky Horror Puppet Show (Main St Landing). She has also performed in cabarets at Dylan’s Lounge NYC, Syracuse Stage NY and NJ Workshop for the Arts. She recently attended the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts in London, UK with a concentration in Shakespeare. Thanks to the fantastic cast and crew! arieleigh.wix.com/arielleighcohen
CONSTANCE GEORGE'S (Director, A Troubled Heart) short plays have been seen in the 15-Minute Play Festival, the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, the Summer Shorties Festival and several Players Theatre Short Play Festivals. Directing includes A Girl's Guide to Chaos, Under Milkwood (Yorkville Rep), Gentleman and Scholar (Deptford Players), Danny and Rose (Algonquin Productions), Jane Takes It In (Downtown Urban Theatre Festival), as well as Relative Values and Outward Bound, with the Triangle Theatre.
JAY MICHAELS (Director, Monster) BUMP represents a return to the career Jay Michaels had hoped for. His childhood dream of playing monsters and ghouls was sidetracked in 1982 when he was cast in Raymond Gasper’s acclaimed production of Hamlet at the Lion Theater, thus forcing him into a career as a director and performer of classical works, winning awards and praise from numerous outlets including Theatre World, American Theatre, ASCAP, and The New York Times. While he had hopes for New Moon Entertainment, American-International, and Hammer Films, he ended up at The Marriott Marquis Theatre, Lincoln Center, The Pearl Theatre, Theatre Off-Park, Primary Stages, HBO Summer Stage, Theatre for the New City, the Midtown International Theatre Festival, The Fringe, and LaMama. Even his concurrent career as a producer with a specialty in marketing & promotion did not bring him to Famous Monsters of Filmland or Fangoria but to three Broadway productions, five national tours, numerous off- and off-off Broadway works, and film & television projects. He co-founded Genesis Repertory (with Mary E. Micari) – designed to give the emerging artist a chance to work in the professional theatre – only to once again be forced into producing quality classical works, new plays and musicals, and fostering playwright and acting programs as well as an acclaimed Musical Master Class. Today, Genesis has a thriving studio and school in Brooklyn called the M Center (but the M does not stand for monster). He did manage to get productions of Doctor Faustus, Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, and War of the Worlds done (plus there were witches in his Macbeth, and his Oedipus and Richard III did get pretty gory at the end). Happily, he did play the title role in the film, Norman Normal, a fantasy in which he was turned into a bug. But this was short-lived as he went on to appear in Eliana Ujueta’s cutting-edge crime drama, Beneath the Rock, and Ric Serena’s comedy, Twelve Fingers. Sadly, his film-directing debut – winning acclaim at the Anthology Film Archives and receiving international distribution, was not a horror film… it was an adaptation of … Hamlet. Even in his personal life, after years of immersing himself in demons and vampires… he married an angel. He gives great thanks to friend and colleague, Andrew Rothkin for helping put his career back on track.
JAMES MONOHAN (Director, Fang) likes wearing multiple hats as a video producer, director, shooter, and editor. Recent projects include a reality/comedy web series called Tales of Tinder, profiles of 3D printing innovators for Maker Media, and various projects for Chris4Life (a colon cancer foundation). He also produces and co-hosts a popular podcast for writers and fans of story craft called The Narrative Breakdown and is the creator of a brainstorming iPhone app called The Storyometer. He's happy to be doing theater again after an overly long hiatus. His most recent play was Bastard at the "Notes from the Underground Festival," for which he was recognized as "Best Director." Many thanks to Andrew and Jay, his fellow directors, and his talented cast, as well as Cheryl and Marley for their love and support.
LESLIE C. NEMET (Director, Scrambled) has directed plays, musicals and world premieres at various venues throughout New York, including the Lucille Lortel, Abingdon Theatre, The Players Theatre, Stage Left, and many well-known festivals. She will be directing the upcoming web series "On the Prowl" and was recently the Assistant Director on the film "Canvas." She has taught acting Off-Broadway at the Snapple Theatre and coaches privately as well. As a writer, she has penned several projects, including an interactive version of The Sopranos (complete with music) and a one-woman show, Life 101. As an actress, Leslie has appeared in Broadway workshops, Off-Broadway, in television, film, radio and webisodes. You can currently see her perform Off-Broadway in Olympics Uber Alles and in several web series. This is dedicated to Mothers and Daughters everywhere! Thanks Mom (and Dad too)!
ANDREW ROTHKIN (Director, Call Upon) returns to directing after a three year hiatus. He last staged Ninja Motorcycle Babes. Favorite directing projects include contemporary classics (including Inge’s The Tiny Closet, Strindberg’ Motherlove, and Williams’ The Lady of Larkspur Lotion), new plays (such as Psychodrama, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, and Hitchcock Blonde), and plays Andrew also penned (Voice, Danny, and Meredith’s Ring, and many others). Andrew has also led some devised pieces and has directed hundreds of children as an artist-in-residence throughout NYC.) www.AndrewRothkin.com
SCOTT H. SCHNEIDER (Director, The Greenhouse) has directed numerous showcases and readings Off and Off-Off Broadway, at venues including The Quaigh, The Harold Clurman, The Nat Horne, The Actors’ Studio, DR2, T.S.I., and The Friar’s Club. Favorites include Drunks with Guns (the inaugural production at lower Manhattan’s Access Theatre) and Burnout, both with playwright Bob Mahnken; the long running The Summer They Stopped Making ‘Ludes by Steven Tanenbaum; and the rock musical The Last American. He has worked as an Equity Stage Manager, a Production Manager for opera and Off Broadway; and Lighting Designer (most notably for the delle’Arte Opera Company and for Club Med in the states and abroad) Graduate of Wesleyan University, Artistic Director of Bad Dog Productions and former Treasurer of the Stage Managers’ Association.
MELISSA SKIRBOLL (Director, Taste of Hell) is a director, writer, actor and producer. Currently directing I Have It by Bekah Brunstetter at this year's Estrogeius Festival, her other recent directing work includes Andrew Rothkin's Father's Day at MRT, NOLA: Three Plays About Home by Vivian Neuwirth for the Estrogenius Festival 2013. She won Best Director (Short Form) at the Planet Connections Theater Festivity for her work on The Closet by Amy Gray Piper in 2012, and was nominated for her direction of Straight Faced Lies by Mark Jason Williams in 2013 and her play Hell is where the Heart Is was nominated for four awards and took home two prizes in 2010. She directed her own plays, Blood is Thicker as part of the 2013 SWAN Day celebration at the Abingdon Theater, and Pizza for Life as part of Ego Actus NYC Icon Play in November of 2011. She is proud to have directed readings of 14 different 10-minute plays in Abingdon Theatre's Benefit Challenge Series since 2011. She also directed and produced Girlfriend Experience by Paul Tarantino at the Next Stage Theater in Hollywood, CA.
ERIN SOLÉR (Director. UFO Weather) is a director and actor. As a director, she most recently worked on a site-specific production of Chocolate with RAL Productions. In New York, she has worked on various pieces composed by Chris Wade, her favorite collaborator, including Such Sweet Sorrow (Theatre For the New City) and 29LiVeS: Holidaze, as well as The Lightning Field (Outstanding Play award, Fringe Festival) and Baal (Columbia University). Regionally: Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof, Where the Wild Things Are.