An Accident - A Pittsburgh Premiere

October 2016

Written by Lydia Stryk

Directed by Linda Haston

With: Amy Landis*, Ken Bolden* Hilary Caldwell (EMC)
 

Libby is run over and critically injured in an accident. The driver, Anton, appears at her bedside. Libby’s recovery is defined by coming to terms with the man who hit her, and mirrored by Anton’s wrestle with his guilt and responsibility. The sharply defined stages of her progress occur within the context of their wary, forthright, prickly, warm, confrontational, and erotically charged interactions. Introspective at times, and often seething with cynical humor, An Accident is a visceral and emotional story about recovery, guilt, and forgiveness.
 

 Reviews:
 

"An Accident is a quiet and intense play...genuine and authentic...Director Linda Haston paces the eighty minute play beautifully..." - The Pittsburgh Tatler - Wendy Arons 

"...masterfully directed...stunning performances...compelling, riveting...powerful" - 'Burgh Vivant - Lonnie Jantzsch & Michael Buzzelli

"Landis delivers a multi-dimensioned performance over the course of her character’s journey, much of it with barely lifting a hand...One of our region’s venerable actors, Bolden delivers a wonderfully nuanced and multi-layered characterization, bringing a sympathetic humanity to Anton..." - Pittsburgh in the Round - Yvonne Hudson 

"I highly encourage you to check out An Accident for yourself and experience the contentious, table-turning, ultimately bittersweet and meaningful relationship played out between Landis and Bolden.” - PA Theatre Guide - Elanor Ruth Smith
 

"The play is Lydia Stryk's testament to the power of dialoque...There are instances of wit to temper the emotion, as the multilayered implications of guilt, disaster and disability are explored by the two, sometimes to unexpectedly hilarious effect." - City Paper - Gerard Stanley Hornby


* Members of Actors Equity Association

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Aug 2016 / Mar 2017

A new Work 

Created and performend by Heidi Nagle

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Lungs - A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

December 2016

Written by Duncan MacMillan

Directed by Spencer Whale

With: Sarah Silk & Alec Silberblatt

A bare stage, no scenery, no furniture, no props,

no costume changes but infinite possibilities.

LUNGS is a smart and funny drama that follows a couple through the surprising lifecycle of their relationship, as they grapple with questions of family and change, hope, betrayal, happenstance, and the terrible pain that you can only cause the people you love.

 Reviews:
 

"This kind of spare storytelling is a gift to talented actors, and Silberblatt and Silk are superb beyond description as the man and woman. These may, in fact, be two of the finest performances I’ve seen in Pittsburgh this year..." - Wendy Arons, Pittsburgh Tatler

“Not once was my attention anywhere else...My hat is lifted to some brilliant, brilliant work." - Ted Hoover, City Paper

"...I was riveted because of the extraordinary performances of Sarah Silk and Alec Silberblatt. With Spencer Whale’s unbelievably focused and achingly controlled direction, Silk and Silberblatt burst onto the stage and for an hour-and-a-half burn their way through this play with a style and intelligence that I’m sure has left scars." - Ted Hoover, City Paper

"The actors who mesmerize us are Sarah Silk and Alec Silberblatt, spinning emotional conflict out of playwright Duncan Macmillan’s torrent of words...I’d go again just to see the two actors work." - Chris Rawson, Post-Gazette

* Members of Actors Equity Association

The Pink Unicorn

February 2017

By Elise Forier Edie

Directed by Ingrid Sonnichsen

With: Amy Landis

A recent widow raising her 14-year-old daughter in a small, conservative Texas town, Trish works at a nearby hospital and cherishes her church, her home, and everything else she can count on in a world she now finds herself alone in. Then suddenly she faces a crisis she never saw coming: her beloved teenage daughter announces she is gender queer, and that she’s starting a chapter of the Gay and Straight Alliance at the local high school.  Trish has no frame of reference for this information; like many people in her world, transgender people and issues simply aren't on her radar.  How can she possibly be forced to choose sides?

Reviews:
 

"... Amy Landis’s beautifully nuanced performance wisely choose to pull us deeply into her point of view...Ingrid Sonnichsen directs with a deft comic touch..." - Pittsburgh Tatler

"There’s nothing off the wall about the truthfulness and humanity of The Pink Unicorn."  - City Paper

“The Pink Unicorn” is a treatise on love, religion and human sexuality, but it is also side-splittingly funny." - 'Burgh Vivant

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4.48 Psychosis - a play by Sarah Kane

April 2017

Directed by Robyne Parrish
Movement specialist: Moriah Ella Mason
With: Siovhan Christensen*, Erika Cuenca*, Tammy Tsai*

In one last act of love to the theater before her untimely death in 1999, playwright Sarah Kane wrote what many consider her greatest play, 4.48 Psychosis.  A subjective story of clinical depression, the audience is given insight into one particular case – a young woman who stands in the place between life and death. Certain issues are clearly dealt with: whether or not to take medication, the effects and effectiveness of such medication, self-harm, suicide and possible causes of depression. Combined with themes of isolation, dependency, relationships, and love, the result is not just a painfully funny play about one person’s struggle with mental illness, but also one that scratches at the scabs of inadequacy, failure and despair that we all bear at times.

​

Reviews: 

"4.48 Psychosis is Manic Brilliance."  - Local-Pittsbugh

​

"Because Kane didn’t offer much in the way of theater, it’s left to specific productions to supply their own. At Off the Wall, director Robyne Parrish has divided up the “script” for three actresses: Erika Cuenca, Tammy Tsai and Siovhan Christensen. I don’t have the words to precisely express my admiration for them — how they manage to get through it is astounding" - City Paper.


* Members of Actors Equity Association

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Tunnel Vision - A Pittsburgh Theater and World Premiere

October 2015

A World Premiere

By Andrea Lepcio

Directed by Melissa Maxwell

Featuring: Lisa Ann Goldsmith*, Elizabeth Ruelas*
 

off the WALL celebrates the return of playwright Andrea Lepcio (LOOKING FOR THE PONY), whose play TUNNEL VISION is a multi-layered celebration of the Feminine.

Lepcio examines many of the daily challenges women face as well as those issues that are, typically, solely female:  the struggle to balance motherhood with the desire to have a career, the stigma that comes with not choosing the traditional path assigned our gender, the hypercritical judgment we place on ourselves in comparison to our female peers, the difficulty we find in truly loving ourselves, and the fear that sometimes comes in loving each other.

TUNNEL VISION is ultimately a journey of acceptance and redemption, from which truth, purpose and love unexpectedly emerge.

 Reviews:
 

"The story manages to pack quite a wallow...anyone who’s ever felt adrift in a life no longer his or her own should be able to find something to love about this production." - City Paper

“Tunnel Vision” gathers itself together into a parable of seduction and self-discovery.” - Post Gazette

“There is a poetry to the language of the play…but there is hope, a gleaming beacon of hope. Two damaged creatures escape their wretched unfulfilled lives by finding salvation in the other; the light at the end of the tunnel" - 'Burgh Vivant

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Scared of Sarah - A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

December 2015

Directed by Ingrid Sonnichsen

With: Erika Cuenca*, Sarah Silk*, Shaun Cameron Hall*

Lily and Sam are in crisis mode. The upwardly-mobile, young, urban couple are pregnant, in debt and are trying to navigate life’s challenges together, while also including Lily’s sister Sarah in their lives.
 

Sarah is a 30-year-old single woman living alone…She works as a ticket collector on the train, loves rock climbing and a good chicken marsala. Also, she is autistic.
 

Sarah, Lily and Sam expose some of the frequently experienced, but rarely discussed aspects of life on the Autism Spectrum. The need for structure and predictability, black and white thinking, difficulty reading and responding to social and emotional situations, sensitivity to touch and exhausting meltdowns are just a few aspects of Sarah and her family’s day-to-day life.
 

Lily must reckon with the fact that this new phase of her life is in fact scary and uncertain. She looks at all the relationships in her life: her parents, her husband, her sister, and most importantly, herself. Only time will tell if her child will inherit autism, if she will be stronger than her own mother, and if she will be the supportive sister Sarah needs.

Reviews:

"...the work of this outrageously good cast...Cuenca, Silk and Hall play with ruthless honesty, and it yields devastating results." - Pittsburgh City Paper

“With directorial support from Sonnichsen and a flawless amalgamation of cast chemistry, Hall and Cuenca’s theatrical outbursts, mental breakdowns and excruciatingly personal moments are so emotionally charged it can be painful to watch.”  - Pittsburgh in the Round
 

“This richly talented cast molds this smartly written script into an exploration of human behavior and emotion that is beautiful in its honesty.” - 'Burgh Vivant

The staging of the production has been made possible with the gracious support of: Heinz Endowments, Arts for Autism


* Members of Actors Equity Association

Mother Lode - A Pittsburgh Theater and World Premier

January 2016

A new One-Woman-Play by Virginia Wall Gruenert

Starring:  Linda Haston


While it’s true that mothers and daughters often have contentious relationships that will keep therapists in business for decades to come, there is no denying the deep bond that exists between them. Mother Lode deals with the end-of-life decisions that must be made by dutiful daughters, as well as the discord, conciliation, warfare, and ultimate acceptance (whether they like it or not) between strong, independent women bound by love and family.

 Reviews:
 

"a deeply emotional story of two women discovering each other and themselves along the way. Haston sings, dances and wails with intensity. It’s a powerful night of theater." - Mike ‘Buzz’ Buzzelli for ‘Burgh Vivant 

"Over the course of one hour and ten minutes Mother Lode blurs the line between life and art." - Megan Grabowski for Pittsburgh in the Round

“...Mother Lode mines the complexities and joys of the mother-daughter relationship, with many a laugh, a few tears, and certainly a sigh of remembrance." - Michelle Pilecki for City Paper 

KIMONO - A Pittsburgh Theater and World Premiere

March 2016

A New Work

Developed and choreographed by Mark C. Thompson

With: Moriah Ella Mason, Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Ryan Bergman

Kimono explores the theme of social justice through the experience of victims, the evil of predation, and the culpability of predators. With the help of a woman who appears on his doorsteps, a traumatized man, an artist, reconstituted his life through the transformational work of creating beautiful kimonos. The result is that together they discover the will and courage to do that remaining thing that should be done — to call out, expose, and symbolically drive back the predator.

Kimono deals with the subject of predation and victimization in a form that resembles a parable. It aspires to recount a horrible story in an eerily beautiful way, juxtaposing scenes of ugliness with very beautiful ones.

The Musical of Musicals: The Musical

May 2016

Book by Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart

Music by Eric Rockwell

Lyrics by Joanne Bogart

Directed by Robyne Parrish

Musical Director: Nancy Gordon Galluzzo

With: Elizabeth Boyke, Elizabeth Ann Flemming, Brittany Graham* Gavan Pamer*, Ryan Patrick Kearney* Robyne Parrish*, 

In this hilarious satire of musical theatre, one story becomes five delightful musicals, each written in the distinctive style of a different master of the form: Rodgers and Hammerstein (complete with dream ballet), Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Kander & Ebb. The basic plot: June is an ingenue who can't pay the rent and is threatened by her evil landlord. Will the handsome leading man come to the rescue? This comic valentine to musical theatre was the longest running show in the York Theatre Company's 35-year history before moving to Off-Broadway.

Reviews:

“. . .uproariously funny. . .far and away exceeded all of my expectations. . .” – PA Theater Guide

“There are more jokes per mile in this show than could be inventoried. I, naturally, had a blast..." - City Paper

“The Musical of Musicals” has five acts full of satirical gold, and Off the Wall has found a sparkling cast to deliver it." - Post-Gazette

"...my hats off goes to Robyne Parrish. Not only did she put together this wonderful show, she owned every second of her time on stage. She was grand, she was bold, she was rough and ugly and gorgeous all at once." - PA Theater Guide

"The choreography was dizzying and well executed, the over-the-top enthusiasm..." - PGH Lesbian Correspondents

* Members of Actors Equity Association

The Small Room At The Top Of The Stairs - A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

October 2014

A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

Written by: Carole Frechette

Directed by: Ingrid Sonnichsen

With: Ken Bolden*, Sharon Brady*, Daina Michelle Griffth*, Amy Landis*, Amanda Brooke Lerner*.
 

“Somewhere in an enormous house, there is a hidden staircase.”

And thus begins Carole Frechette’s play, a contemporary variant of the Bluebeard legend. Grace finds herself irresistibly drawn to the mysterious room her husband has forbidden her to enter.  She stumbled into a fairy-tale marriage complete with her own Prince Charming and resplendent mansion, but it could all come apart if she chooses to defy his wishes. Can Grace resist temptation, and other’s voices ringing in her ears, or will she let her curiosity get the best of her and confront the secrets of the man she loves?

Reviews:
 

“…an excellent cast of actors…smartly presented by off the WALL Productions” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“…(the) talk is talked so brilliantly by this intensely talented cast.  Director Ingrid Sonnichsen, with impeccable style, has herself fashioned a solidly built garden in which all the performers bloom.” - Pittsburgh City Paper

“A Cerebral Theatrical Adventure” – Pittsburgh Owl Scribe

“…I was thrilled with the quality of this production and cannot wait to see what the rest of the season has in store.” – The Pittsburgh Stage Magazine

* Members of Actors Equity Association

OR - A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

December 2014

A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

Written by Liz Duffy Adams

Directed by John Shepard

With: Robin Abramson*, Erika Cuenca*, Ethan Hova*

“…all women together ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn.” - Virginia Woolf

Liz Duffy Adams’ neo-Restoration comedy OR, takes place during one night in the life of Aphra Behn (1640-1689), poet, spy, first professional female playwright, and one of the most influential dramatists of the late 17th century.

Sprung from debtors’ prison after a disastrous overseas mission, Aphra is desperate to get out of the spy trade.  She has a shot at a production at one of only two London companies, if she can only finish her play by morning despite interruptions from sudden new love, actress Nell Gwynne, complicated royal love, King Charles II, and a very dodgy ex-love, double-agent William Scot – who may be in on a plot to murder the king in the morning.  Can Aphra resist Nell’s charms, save Charles’ life, win William a pardon, and launch her career, all in one night?

Reviews:
 

“…a quasi-historical, language-drenched farce, which I count among the more unlikely gifts of this holiday season.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“It's one of the most charming plays I've had the pleasure of seeing in quite some time.” – Pittsburgh City Paper

“Or, will probably be one of the last plays I’ll see in 2014, but it’s also one of the best I’ve witnessed this entire year.” – Pittsburgh Owl Scribe

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Ghosts - A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

March 2015

A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

Written by: Henrik Ibsen

Adapted by: Virginia Wall Gruenert

Directed by: Simm Landres

With: Virginia Wall Gruenert*, Ken Bolden*, Shaun Cameron Hall, Sarah Silk*, Weston Blakesley*
 

The sins of the past are at the heart of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, one of the most controversial plays of the late 19th century and a scathing commentary on the morality of the times.  Mrs. Helen Alving has accepted her pastor’s counsel and endured her husband’s many infidelities in silence.  Ten years after Alving’s death, she is to dedicate an orphanage in his memory.  Her son Oswald, kept innocent of his father’s profligacy, returns home for the dedication.  His attraction to the housemaid conjures up the ghost of his parents’ unhappy marriage.  This disastrous romance, along with Oswald’s increasing symptoms of the venereal disease inherited from his father, force Mrs. Alving to confront her own "ghosts.”
 

Reviews:
 

“(Wall Gruenert’s) sympathetic portrayal of an independent woman trapped in an oppressive society is the heart and soul of this production.” - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“For a theater company that insists on bringing daring new works to its stage, off the WALL did a superb job on its original treatment of a revered classic.” - Pittsburgh Owl Scribe

“off the WALL has a small but hefty production on their hands.”  - The Pittsburgh Stage Magazine

"...Gruenert oscillates between repression and effusion effectively as the walls burn down around her...” - Pittsburgh City Paper

* Members of Actors Equity Association

The Whale - A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

May 2015

A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

Written by: Samuel D. Hunter

Directed by: Linda Haston

With: F.J.Hartland*, Abby Quatro*, Amy Landis* Dana Hardy*, Brian Knoebel*
 

On the outskirts of Mormon country, Idaho, a six-hundred pound recluse hides away in his apartment eating himself to death.  Desperate to reconnect with his long-estranged daughter, he reaches out to her, only to find a viciously sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teen.  Big-hearted and fiercely funny, The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter tells the story of a man’s last chance at redemption, and of finding beauty in the most unexpected places.

Reviews:
 

“Mr. Hartland rises to the occasion with fine acting of the simple, heart-felt, nonostentatious kind.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“off the WALL might have found its best marriage of content and execution to date.” – Pittsburgh City Paper

“I’ve been promised a lot of things in my life—and haven’t gotten most—but as far as Gruenert’s promise that I’d find The Whale “brilliant,” I’m pleased to say that his cast and crew delivered.” – The Pittsburgh Stage Magazine

* Members of Actors Equity Association

The Zero Hour

October 2013

Written by Madeleine George

Directed by: Robyne Parrish

With: Erika Cuenca*, Daina Michelle Griffith*, John Steffenauer*.

Rebecca and her chronically unemployed girlfriend, O, have created a happy nest in their run-down walk-up in Queens, but the more O pushes Rebecca to stop hiding their relationship, the more Rebecca's work life—writing a textbook for seventh graders about the Holocaust— begins to bleed into her personal life: She starts meeting World War II Nazis on the 7 train, passing as hipster professionals in New York City but eager to come out about who they really are. O is also sparring with convincingly real visions: her long estranged — and recently dead? — mother keeps showing up to argue with her about her choices. This almost-love story explores the relationship between honesty and cruelty: How do you tell the truth about yourself when that truth might devastate the people you love?

Reviews:

"Two amazingly talented women...Erika Cuenca & Daina Griffith...funny and polished..." - City Paper

"...the level of acting here goes beyond virtuosity. Cuenca and Griffith inhabit their roles...they are sexy and comic." - Coal Hill Blog

"...brilliant dialogue...Cuenca and Griffith...make lovely dramatic music together...full of sexual energy...erotic chemistry..." - Owlscribe

"...beautiful...their talent is just great...thought provoking ..." - 'Burgh Vivant

 "...emotionally moving and intellectually stimulating performance." - The Carnegie Shul-Newsletter
 

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Well

December 2013

Written by Lisa Kron

Directed by: Melissa Hill Grande

With: Daina Michelle Griffith* as Lisa & Virginia Wall Gruenert* as Ann

Ensemble: Tony Bingham*, Alan Bomar Jones*, Linda Haston*, Susie McGregor-Laine*

Lisa Kron’s insightful 2006 Tony Award-nominated play is a cheeky, fourth-wall-smashing seriocomedy about the collision of art and life, exploring the dynamics of health, family and community. With this story of her mother’s extraordinary ability to heal a changing neighborhood, despite her inability to heal herself, Kron is left to contemplate the notion that wellness lies in our ability to embrace the complexities and contradictions of life. Well is a surprising and riotously funny play that ultimately acknowledges the heartbreaking challenge of true empathy, even toward those we love the most.
 

 Reviews:
 

“There's not a second you'd rather be watching anything else.” - Pittsburgh City Paper

“…remarkable energy and insightfulnes.” - Pittsburgh Owl Scribe

"...intimate mastery of tones and facets..." - Pittsburgh Post Gazette

" ...a great theatrical experience." - 'Burgh Vivant

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Straightening Combs

January-April 2014

Directed by: Linda Haston

With: Kim El, Nia Washington
 

Pittsburgh playwright/poet/actor/director Kim El shares her own experience with both the repercussions of low self- esteem and overcoming depression in urban America in her play Straightening Combs.  Inhabiting several different personas to tell the story, Ms. El’s remarkable performance combines spoken word poetry, songs, and short vignettes to take the audience on an intimate life journey as seen through the eyes of an African American female coming of age in the Pittsburgh Hill District.

Pittsburgh will be joining cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in the revival of repertory theater. A mainstay of such illustrious companies as the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, repertory theater is a type of theatrical presentation in which several works are presented regularly or in alternate sequence in one season.
 

 Reviews:
 

“Breaking out of her chrysalis of pain into mature happiness and self-respect is the play’s climax” - City Paper

 “honest, moving, and courageous”  'Burgh Vivant

A Feminine Ending

March 2014

Directed by Matt Morrow

With: Erika Cuenca*, Ingrid Sonnichsen*,

Weston Blakesley*, Shaun Cameron Hall, Andrew Wind*


Amanda wants to be a great composer, but she’s in a profession that only recognizes famous men. At the moment, she's living in New York City and writing advertising jingles to pay the rent while her almost-famous fiancé, Jack, pursues his singing career. Her parents are getting divorced, her first love reappears, and there's a lot of noise in her head, but none of it is music. Until the end. A gentle, bittersweet comedy about a young woman who knows what she wants but not quite how to get it.

Reviews:
 

"...the play is really a showcase for Erika Cuenca as Amanda, who, in a mammoth performance of intense focus and rock-ribbed conviction, keeps reminding us of the humanity deep inside Treem’s compelling script." - Ted Hoover - City Paper

“... the electricity between them and the energy between them [Amanda and her parents] was just electrifying!  So real and so much emotion, but yet so funny.  Truly a thinking person’s comedy.” - Lonnie The Theater Lady for 'Burgh Vivant

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Inky

May 2014

Written by: Rinne Groff

Directed by Ingrid Sonnichsen
With:  Tony Bingham*  (Greg), Abby Quatro* (Inky), Adrienne Wehr* (Barbara), and on alternating nights Evangelina Paul & Layla Wyoming (Allison)

A love-starved Manhattanite husband and wife struggle to satisfy their child-like desire to "have it all" during the high-rolling, morally skewed 1980s. When they take in Inky, a young Slavic nanny who's obsessed with Muhammad Ali, to care for their nine-year-old daughter and infant son, they are forced to face both their limitations and their potential for change. Inky is a darkly comic story about the importance of fighting back.
 

Reviews:
 

"One of the most interesting productions I’ve seen for a while simply because just when you thought you had each of the characters figured out and you knew exactly where each of them were coming from ….BOOM… it changed.” - Lonnie The Theatre Lady of ‘Burgh Vivant

“Inky is snarky, funny, rather ugly and right on the money.” - Michelle Pilecki of Pittsburgh City Paper

* Members of Actors Equity Association

The Other Place

October 2012

Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

Written by: Sharr White

Directed by: Melissa Hill Grande

With: Erika Cuenca*, Virginia Wall Gruenert*, Mark Conway Thompson*, Ricardo Vila-Roger.
Featured performance artist: EMay

Just as biophysicist Juliana Smithton’s research leads to a potential breakthrough in dementia medication, her life takes a disorienting turn. During a lecture to colleagues at an exclusive beach resort, she glimpses an enigmatic young woman in a yellow bikini amidst the crowd of business suits. Who is this stranger, and why is she here? Gradually, a mystery unravels as contradictory evidence, blurred truth and fragmented memories collide in a cottage on the windswept shores of Cape Cod.
 

Reviews:
 

"...brilliantly...ingenious...exhilarating..." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"...Boundary-pushing...excellent..." - Pittsburgh Magazine

"...intelligent, moving...excellent..." - Observer-Reporter

"...sharp and realistic...frightfully important..." - Pittsburgh City Paper

"...New Location, Same Bold Productions." - Pittsburgh Owl Scribe

"...done superbly..." - WRCT Pittsburgh

"...taut and moving” - Coal Hill Review
 

* Members of Actors Equity Association

The Speed Queen

December 2012

Written and performed by Anne Stockton

Directed by Austin Pendleton.

Based on the novel by Stewart O'Nan

Convicted murderer Marjorie Standiford has agreed to spend her last hours on Death Row talking into a tape recorder, answering questions posed by a celebrated author about her involvement in a killing spree, her drug addiction, wild sex life, and why she is where she is.

Adapted from the novel by Stewart O'Nan and

starring Anne Stockton, this harrowing one-woman tour de force won for Outstanding Performance - Solo Show at the 2007 NYC Midtown International Theater Festival.
 

Reviews:
 

"...both satisfying and frightening...she's captured Marjorie's innocence and insanity." - Stewart O'Nan, Author

"Performed by the remarkable Anne Stockton... this is a daring piece of theater. Austin Pendleton has directed the play with a keen understanding of the humanity within the monster." - The Siegel Column

Gruesome Playground Injuries

December 2012

A Pittsburgh Theater Premiere

Written by: Rajiv Joseph

Directed by: Maggie Balsley

With: Erika Cuenca* and Tony Bingham*
Original music by Ryan McMasters

Love hurts, and that’s the point. Two eight-year-olds’ lives collide in the nurse’s office. Then over the course of 30 years, the lives of Kayleen and Doug intersect at the most bizarre intervals, leading the two childhood friends to compare scars and the physical calamities that keep drawing them together. As they mature from accident-prone kids to self-destructive adults, their broken hearts and broken bones draw them ever closer. These two rebels may only be fit for one another - but how far can one person go to heal another’s wounds?

Reviews:
 

”…terrific production....deeply felt and and perfectly calibrated performances...”  - Pittsburgh City Paper

“…fill the stage with warmth, depth and truth." - WRCT Radio Pittsburgh

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Looking for the Pony

March 2013

A Pittsburgh Theater Regional Premiere

Written by: Andrea Lepcio

Directed by: Robyne Parrish

Starring: Theo Allyn*, Karen Baum*, Daina Michelle Griffith*,

Cameron Knight*.

Original music by EMay

Finalist Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award

Finalist for the NEA Outstanding New American Play Award.

There once were two children who could see the bright side of any situation. One day, they are put in a room filled with manure. Hours later they are discovered laughing, scooping up the manure, digging underneath. "What on earth are you doing?" the children are asked. With beaming smiles they answer, "All this poop, there has to be a pony in here somewhere."

Eloisa is finally ready to leave a lifeless career in finance to pursue a childhood dream when her sister Lauren is diagnosed with breast cancer.  Lauren's perfect life and Eloisa's second chance collide as the sisters join forces to cure all that ails them.  As funny as it is heart-breaking, Looking for the Pony is a fast-paced journey through the places cancer takes us, dedicated to the fierce love of two sisters.

Reviews:

"...prolific, vibrant and emotive...Griffith and Baum trade dialogue with telepathic precision, and Allyn and Knight brilliantly create every other character..." - Pittsburgh City Paper

"Despite its physical demands, Daina Michelle Griffith and Karen Baum...evoke movingly sympathetic moments of tenderness, determination and despair..." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Without Ruth

May 2013

A play by: Virginia Wall Gruenert
Directed by:  F.J. Hartland

With: Linda Haston*, Diana Ifft, Adrienne Wehr*

and on Saxophone Rob Stull


If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother.

While it's true that mothers and daughters often have contentious relationships that will keep therapists in business for decades to come, there is no denying the deep bond that exists between them. Without Ruth deals with the end-of-life decisions that must be made by dutiful daughters, as well as the discord, conciliation, warfare, and ultimate acceptance (whether they like it or not) between strong, independent women bound by love and family.

Pictures of Ruth (1919-2011) courtesy of Linda Haston
 

Reviews:
 

"Off The Wall still takes chances with the kind of plays for which it has been known, most often those of limited fame, frequently dark or quirky, another reason to gravitate there, out of the mainstream in content... witness a dynamic, versatile and sassy performance by Linda Haston as Ruth, one of the mothers. Haston owns the stage...full of vitality and dimension..." - Gordon Spencer on WRCT

"...you certainly get your money's worth with Off the Wall Productions' premiere of Virginia Wall Gruenert's Without Ruth...detailed and moving performances...wonderfully full-bodied..." - Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents

"Without Ruth makes Off The Wall Productions a cultural treasure...It is haunting, funny and utterly captivating." - Pittsburgh City Paper

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Shaken & Stirred

October 2011

Written by: Virginia Wall Gruenert

Directed by: Robyne Parrish

With: Karen Baum*, Erika Cuenca*, Virginia Wall Gruenert*, Robyne Parrish*

Voted Readers’ Choice “Best of 2007″ in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Virginia Wall Gruenert’s powerful play recounts the stories of indomitable women struggling with the toll alcohol has taken on their lives, and the lives of those they love. Carrying all the despair, devastation, and fear that accompany addiction, these ladies valiantly attempt to summon up the strength to overcome.
 

Reviews:
 

“…gripping…brutally powerful…” - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“…phenomenal acting…” - Pittsburgh Radio WRCT

“…brilliantly…wonderful…” - Pittsburgh OutOnline

“…glamour and pathos…” - Pittsburgh City Paper

“…powerful…moving…” - Washington Observer-Reporter

*Members of Actors Equity Association

The House of YES

December 2011

Written by Wendy MacLeod

Directed by: Robyne Parrish

With: Erika Cuenca*, Virginia Wall Gruenert*, Lauren Michaels*

Justin Mohr, John Steffenauer

The Pascal family is the embodiment of dysfunction. Set in their formerly stately mansion in McLean, Virginia, the play begins when Marty Pascal brings his new fiancée, Lesly, home for Thanksgiving dinner. Nobody is thankful. Not puppyish younger brother Anthony, not alcoholic Mama who hurries to the kitchen to lock up the knives, and certainly not Marty’s twin sister Jackie-O, recently released from a mental hospital, whose passions are equally divided between a role-model fixation on Jackie Kennedy and an implacable incestuous addiction to Marty. Jackie-O goes over the edge and attempts to undermine Lesly and Marty’s betrothal, with deadly consequences.

Reviews:
 

"…savagely funny…” - Washington Observer-Reporter

“…played to perfection…” - Pittsburgh Theater Today

“…families don’t get any wackier…” - Pittsburgh City Paper

This project was made possible in part by the generous support of The Heinz Endowments.

This project was supported by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, through its regional arts funding partnership, Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA). State Government funding for the arts depends on an annual appropriation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Community Foundation of Fayette County.

* Members of Actors Equity Association

And Baby Makes Seven

March 2012

Written by: Paula Vogel

Directed by: Linda Haston

Starring: Tony Bingham*, Tressa Glover*, Robyne Parrish*

Move way over, Brady Bunch.

Anna’s baby is a week late. Ruth, her longtime partner, is jealous that Anna’s gay friend Peter fathered the child in a very conventional way. And, oh yes, the three imaginary children Anna and Ruth have created (and embody), not to mention impending fatherhood, are totally freaking Peter out. What’s a non-traditional family to do? Simple: kill off the imaginary kids to make room for the real one. As it turns out, that’s easier said than done. Paula Vogel’s outrageous comedy, And Baby Makes Seven,celebrates a family in which members freely materialize and dematerialize, offering love, comfort, and the occasional kick in the ass if needed. Devising ways to do away with the fictional children becomes problematic. The very sane Anna and Ruth have invented the illusory Cecil, Henri, and Orphan not only for “releasing anxieties,” but also as a means of expressing the often unpleasant truths that adults find difficult to express. Out of the mouths of babes, indeed. Vogel convincingly makes the case that, traditional or alternative, there is no kind of love and no kind of family we should ever turn our back on. There are an awful lot of people to love in this world - not only do you have the opportunity to love them, but you’re better off loving them, even if your history with them is contentious, even if they piss you off, even if they’re imaginary.

Reviews:
 

”I’ve never heard an audience at Off the Wall laugh more raucously or with more frequency than they did last Friday, at the play and at the finesse and versatility that were obvious in the performances given by Robyne Parrish, Tressa Glover and Tony Bingham.” - Washington Observer-Reporter

“The cast is brilliant with pitch-perfect comic timing. But it is Glover who gives the tour-de-force performance of the show.” - Pittsburgh Theater Today

“Off The Wall Productions again lives up to its name, offering a play which clambers and crawls over provocative space, defying conventions, prodding us to ponder what’s inside.” - Pittsburgh City Paper 

” High Strung Menage a Trois Makes Myriad of Mirthful Moments…Washington’s Off The Wall Theater comes up with yet another delightful way to spend the evening.” - Pittsburgh Owl Scribe

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Death and the Maiden

May 2012

Written by: Ariel Dorfman

Directed by: Maggie Balsley

Starring: Ken Bolden, Mark Staley and Adrienne Wehr

How can we keep our innocence once we have tasted evil? How to forgive those who have hurt us irreparably?

Paulina Salas is a former political prisoner in an unnamed Latin American country who was blindfolded, tortured and raped by her captors many years before, led by a sadistic doctor whose face she never saw. Years later, after the repressive regime has fallen, Paulina lives in an isolated country house with her husband, Gerardo. One night, Gerardo’s car breaks down and he is brought home by the humane Dr. Roberto Miranda. But in the voice of this Good Samaritan Gerardo has welcomed into their home, Paulina thinks she recognizes another man – her torturer and rapist.

"It might be the most important play you never saw." - Pittsburgh City Paper

"Cast shines in intense drama." - Pittsburgh Theater Today

"... seethe...unsettling reality...sure integrity..." - WRCT, Pittsburgh

"... provocative, relevant and stimulating..." - OWL Scribe, Pittsburgh

'Night Mother

October 2010

Written by: Marsha Norman

Directed by: Maggie Balsley

With:  Elena Alexandratos*, Virginia Wall Gruenert*

Written by Marsha Norman, winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
 

A middle-aged epileptic unable to hold a job, with a failed marriage and a drug-addicted son on the wrong side of the law, Jessie has decided that life is no longer worth living. As the play begins, Jessie cleans her father’s service revolver and calmly announces that she intends to kill herself. At first her mother refuses to take her seriously, but as Jessie sets about tidying the house and making lists of things to be looked after, Mama’s sense of helplessness begins to build as she desperately attempts to dissuade her daughter from carrying out the act.
 

Reviews:
 

”... acted with nothing less than brilliance...” - Washington Observer-Reporter
 

”Powerful performances in Powerful Play” - Out Online


* Members of Actors Equity Association

Stop Kiss

December 2010

Written by: Diana Son
Directed by: Robyne Parrish

With: Theo Allyn*, Karen Baum*, Erika Cuenca*, Linda Haston*, F.J. Hartland*, Matt Lamb, Atom Pribila and Autumn Ayers.

This evocative play explores our assumptions about love and reminds us of what a profound privilege it can be when we choose, and are chosen, to care for another. Written in scenes that alternate between the present and the past, Stop Kiss pays homage to life’s abrupt and unexpected transformations, to romance, and to the search for personal identity, all the while explaining how society stereotypes people, and the pain that can come from simply being who we are.

Reviews:
 

“...a warm human romance with several twists…” - Pittsburgh City Paper

“...hauntingly beautiful…” - Pittsburgh OutOnline

“... love, compassion...” - Washington Observer-Reporter

“... thought-provoking, emotionally-laden...” - Gordon Spencer on WRCT

This project was made possible through the generous support of the Heinz Endowments.

This project was supported by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency, through its regional arts funding partnership, Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA). State government funding for the arts depends upon an annual appropriation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Community Foundation of Fayette County, PA.


* Members of Actors Equity Association

Boom

March 2011

Written by: Peter Sinn Nachtrieb

Directed by: Michael E. Moats

with: Rachel Downie*, Lauren Michaels*, Matt Henderson

A grad student’s online personal ad lures a mysterious journalism student to his subterranean research lab under the pretense of an evening of “no strings attached” sex. But when a major global catastrophic event strikes the planet, their date takes on evolutionary significance and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. Will they survive? What about the fish in the tank? And who is that woman pulling levers and playing the timpani? An epic and intimate comedy that spans over billions of years, boom explores the influences of fate versus randomness in the course of one’s life, and life as we know it on the planet.

Reviews:
 

"... superb... a joy...provocative, intellectual…and mainly a lot of fun...” - Pittsburgh City Paper
 

“A wild and wacky script, full of laughs...hysterically funny..." - Pittsburgh OutOnline

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Shining City

May 2011

Written by: Conor McPherson

Directed by: John Shepard

with:  Karen Baum*, F.J. Hartland*, James Masciovecchio, Dennis Schebetta*

Set in present-day Dublin, Shining City takes place in the disheveled office of Ian, a former priest turned therapist. Ian’s patient is John, a middle-aged man who has recently lost his wife in a tragic accident. John is having trouble sleeping and is desperate for help, but Ian has his own troubles, including a new baby and a crumbling relationship. John soon reveals the source of his insomnia: he’s been visited by the ghost of his dead wife and is now terrified to return home. This contemporary ghost story explores what it means to lose faith—in God, in relationships, and in one’s self.

Reviews:
 

"... surprising...electric...powerful...” - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"...marvelous...wonderful..." - Pittsburgh Coal Hill Blog:

"...perfect cast..." - Pittsburgh City Paper

“…well acted, provocative…an extraordinary, virtuosic performance by F.J. Hartland.” - Pittsburgh Radio WRCT

“…hilarious and tragic…Hartland commands the stage…Baum’s Neasa is an amazing portrayal…” - Pittsburgh OutOnline

“…is played by the breathtaking Karen Baum…F.J.Hartland gives an affecting performance..." - Washington Observer-Reporter

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Agnes of God - a stage play

October 2009

Wha

Written by: John Pielmeier

Directed by: Maggie Balsley

With: Erika Cuenca*, Virginia Wall Gruenert*, Ingrid Sonnichsen*

Dr. Martha Livingstone is a psychiatrist who is called in as part of the investigation when a dead infant is found at a convent. The child is found to belong to solemn, naive Sister Agnes, who offers little information about who the father is, or why (or if) she committed the crime. The Mother Superior is willing to help in the investigation anyway she can, but when the idea of a virgin birth is suggested, the agnostic Dr. Livingston finds herself in a heated dialogue pitting faith against science and asking the question: Do miracles really happen?

Reviews:

"...Erica Cuenca is so… convincing as Agnes that she left me squirming in my seat." - Pittsburgh City Paper

”...Spectacular Show...” - Pittsburgh OutOnline

"...triumphantly handled...” - Washington Observer-Reporter

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The Little Dog Laughed

December 2009

Written by: Douglas Carter Beane

Directed by: Michael E. Moats

With: Rachel Downie*, Alex Etling, Lauren Michaels*, Chad McWreath*

Set in Manhattan and Los Angeles, the play is a fast paced, hilarious look at the world of celebrity and the down-and-dirty politics of show business. The four characters are Mitchell, a handsome young movie star, his uber-agent Diane, a hustler named Alex, and Alex’s girlfriend Ellen. When Mitchell and Alex become involved in a physical relationship, Diane is concerned that what she describes as Mitchell’s “slight recurring case of homosexuality” will derail his career. She may have to push him back in the closet and everyone else in his life off a cliff in order to secure the movie role of a lifetime for him.

Reviews:
 

”Don’t miss ... Off the Wall has done it again! Bravo!“ - Pittsburgh OutOnline

”... the laughs flow freely at Little Dog but you hate yourself for finding such horror funny.” - Pittsburgh City Paper

” Splendid performances spark Little Dog “ - Washington Observer-Reporter

* Members of Actors Equity Association

The Mercy Seat

March 2010

Written by: Neil LaBute

Directed by: Robyne Parrish

With:  Adrienne Wehr*, Michael E. Moats*

In a time of national tragedy, the world changes overnight. On September 12, 2001, Ben Harcourt finds himself in the downtown apartment of his lover, Abby Prescott – who also happens to be his boss. His endlessly ringing cell phone haunts their conversation as Ben and Abby explore the choices now available to them in an existence different from the one they knew just the day before. Will Ben let his family know he’s alive, or will he and Abby take this chance to create a new life for themselves?

Reviews:
 

“Off The Wall scores with Neil LaBute’s post 9/11 drama” - Washington Observer-Reporter

”... a dynamic and disturbing experience…” - Pittsburgh Radio WRCT

”...powerful performances electrify...” - Pittsburgh OutOnline
 

* Members of Actors Equity Association

The Club

May 2010

Written by: Eve Merriam

Directed and choreographed by:  Linda Haston

With:  Elena Alexandratos*, Erika Cuenca*, Amy Doria, Brittany Graham*, Linda Haston*, Diana Ifft, Robyne Parrish*

Behind every man there really is a woman. OBIE-Award winner, this satirical feminist commentary is set in an exclusive men’s club in 1903, a time when male chauvinist behavior and banter were in full flower. This production gives you the chance to hear what these men love – and hate – about the women in their lives, all expressed through the songs of their day. Both biting social satire and audience-pleasing entertainment, The Club gets everyone thinking about gender roles and stereotypes – because, dressed in formal male attire, all roles are played by women.

Reviews:
 

"...a far out show...impeccably...superbly...vocal artistry..." - Pittsburgh City Paper

"... brilliant cast...hilarious..." - Pittsburgh OutOnline

"...spectacluar...loudest ovation ever..." - Washington Observer-Reporter

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Kimberly Akimbo

October 2008

Written by:  David Lindsey Abaire

Directed by: Michael E. Moats

with: Allison Cahill*, Gregory Caridi, Rachel Downie*, Stephen Santa*, Marcia Urban.

Reviews:

"...each actor excels..." - Pittsburgh City Paper 

"...a triumph for the actors...play of the decade..." - Washington Observer-Reporter


* Members of Actors Equity Association

Season's Greetings

December 2008

Written by: David Sedaris

Directed by: Linda Haston 

With:  Virginia Wall Gruenert*

​

Reviews

"...a hilarious twisted glimpse at holidays' trials." - Pittsburgh City Paper

"...a tour de force for Gruenert…" - Washington Observer-Reporter


* Members of Actors Equity Association
 

How I Learned to Drive

March 2009

Written by: Paula Vogel

Directed by: Linda Haston

With: Lissa Brennan, Allison Cahill*, Erika Cuenca*, F.J. Hartland*, Ron Siebert*

 
Reviews:
 

"...Erika Cuenca is a feeling, delicate actress...giving a very fine performance..." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"...admirable talents...excellent ensemble..." - Pittsburgh City Paper

"...Production eclipses..." - Washington Observer-Reporter

* Members of Actors Equity Association

Four Dogs and A Bone

May 2009

Written by: John Patrick Shanley

Directed by: Linda Haston

with: Erika Cuenca*, Rachel Downie*, Howard Elson*, Michael E. Moats*,

Reviews:

"...the acting and comic timing of this productions are superb..." - Pittsburgh City Paper

"...comedy shines..." - Pittsburgh OutOnline

"...skewers the world of Hollywood with delightful results..." - Washington Observer-Reporter

* Members of Actors Equity Association