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Monday, March 10 at 7pm
FRONT ROW TO MURDER
by Jordan Reeves
written and directed by Jeff Talbott
Featuring: Enid Graham*, Kate Middleton*, Joel Rainwater*, and Max Woertendyke*
stage manager: Kodi Lynn Milburn
TheatreLab, 357 W. 36th St., NYC, 10018
Monday, March 10 at 7pm
FRONT ROW TO MURDER
by Jordan Reeves
In association with THE BARNSTORMERS THEATRE in Tamworth, N.H.
Directed by Jordan Ahnquist
Stage Manager: Daniely Martins
Stage Directions: Emily Marsland
Featuring: Stephen D'Ambrose*, Emily Bosco*, Jo Brook*,
Tsebiyah Mishael Derry*, Alexandra de Suze*, Josh Evans,
Lisa McMillan*, Kate Middleton*, Celeste Oliva*,
William Parry*, Tom Schwans* and Doug Shapiro*
Where: A.R.T. NY, 520 8th Ave. (Between 36th/37th St.),
Third Floor, NYC 10018, Monday at 7PM
Big city detective, Jo Marshall, has come to the small town of Worthingtam, to watch her aunt perform in the local theater’s cozy whodunnit. However, the play takes a deadly turn, and Jo has a Front Row To Murder, when someone is killed onstage during the performance. Now pulled into a very real murder mystery, the detective must sort through a cast of quirky characters and confusing clues to get to the bottom of the deadly drama before the killer can act again.
*Thank you to Frederick C. and Jean L. Seavey
and the descendants of Phineas and Irene Hammond
RSVP@GroundUPproductions.org
Jordan Reeves/Playwright is an American actor, director, and writer currently based out of London. Before moving to England, he was the Artistic Director of the Guerrilla Shakespeare Project in New York City for over a decade. During his tenure with GSP Jordan was nominated twice for 'Outstanding Director' by the Innovative Theater Awards, for his productions of Pericles: Born in a Tempest and The Tragedy of King Arthur, both of which he also wrote. As a writer, Jordan has penned three novels: She Blinked, The Brothers Wallhart, and Adventures in Dog Walking. He’s also excited to have his first feature film which he co-wrote and directed, Joni & the Whale, set to be released in 2025.
Emily Bosco (she/her) is thrilled to be making her Ground UP debut! She is a proud Colombian-Italian actor and fellow alumna of UNC Chapel Hill, holding an MFA from their Professional Actor Training Program. Favorite credits include Go Back For Murder (Barnstormers Theatre), Pride and Prejudice (Greenbrier Valley Theatre), Sense & Sensibility (PlayMakers Rep), Galileo's Daughter (Remy Bumppo), Steel Magnolias (Creede Rep), and The Rat Trap (Mint Theater). Other passions include dogs, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, Taylor Swift, and being the world's best Auntie to her niece and nephews. AEA Member. www.emilybosco.com. For my family, given and chosen.
Jordan Ahnquist: NYC credits include Shear Madness, When Pigs Fly, and Battles of Richmond Hill. Regionally Jordan has worked with Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Rep, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Florida Studio Theatre, The Barnstormers Theatre, Lyric Stage, Speakeasy Stage, Central Square Theatre and The Gamm among others. Film/tv credits include Ella McCay (2025), and Gilded Lillies. Jordan holds a BA in theatre from Muhlenberg College. Jordan currently serves as Artistic Director of The Barnstormers Theatre in Tamworth, NH. barnstormerstheatre.org
Jo Brook is a Montana native and NYC-based, HOH actor & musician. She is the founder of an all-female bluegrass collective The Snowy Mountain Sisters. Acting credits include Silent Sky (Asolo Rep, Barnstormers Theatre), October Sky (Universal Stages), The Goree All-Girl String Band (NYMF), Wild Fire (Denver Center), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Alabama Shakes), and What Would You Do (Hulu). Jo is also on staff with A.R.T/NY as their Manager of External Relations. Upcoming projects include co-designing music with Melanie Chen Cole for The Glass Menagerie (IRT) and Baskerville (Alley Theater).
Stephen D’Ambrose is a 45 year stage veteran, with performances at theaters across the country, including: the Guthrie, The Old Globe, San Jose Rep., The Children’s Theatre Co., The Jungle Theater, Arizona Theatre Co. and The Folger Shakespeare Theatre in DC. National tours include the Broadway tour of Tracy Letts’ acclaimed August: Osage County and the Guthrie Theater’s Great Expectations. Off-Broadway he has appeared at 59E59 Theatre as Igor Stravinsky in Penguin Theater’s Small World, a Fantasy and as Uncle Ski in Strangemen Theater Company’s BERNIE & MIKEY’S TRIP TO THE MOON. Film and TV credits Include HONEYDEW and MAKE YOR SOUL GROW as Kurt Vonnegut. Last year with GROUND UP reading series he was seen in Ken Jone’s TEN MINUTES ON A BENCH.
Tsebiyah Mishael Derry is an actor, singer and poet from New York. Favorite roles: Ida in Into The Breeches (Barnstormers Theatre); Claire Cooper in Rabbit Summer (Mile Square Theater); Gemma in Let There Be Love (Penguin Rep), and Avery in SKiNFOLK: An American Show (Bushwick Starr/National Black Theater of Harlem) Tsebiyah is an alumnus of Sarah Lawrence College and BADA. In 2022, she was a Hermitage Artist Fellow. Find “Coastline” and other music by Tsebiyah on all streaming platforms. www.tsebiyah.com
Alexandra de Suze is thrilled to be part of Front Row To Murder. After performing in Nunsense at The Barnstormers Theater as Mother Superior, she performed in Matthew J. Kaplan’s Haunting Melody as Marie and in Kendra Augustin’s The Beauty of My Youth is Gone, But The Chemicals Remain as Alex. Most recently, she and her collaborator Richard Binder performed their show BinderSuze: Mashup Mixtape at Pangea. She has performed and hosted cabaret, directed for festivals, written for storytelling events, and has a satire series “Reince Preibus Tried...” on Facebook. In the meantime, she is a regular with The Playground Experiment, is the alto at Madison Avenue Baptist Church, and can be seen behind the kit as a member of The Summer Replacements. ALL THE LOVE to Jeff and Ben for their patience and support when mom runs off at night to sing and play with friends. www.AlexandradeSuze.com
Emily Marsland is thrilled to return to GroundUP Productions! Graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, Resident of NYC, Lover of Photography, Reading, Tennis, and anything creative. Regional Theatre: Legally Blonde (Brooke), It’s A Wonderful Life (Mary), The Sunshine Boys (Nurse), They’re Playing Our Song (Voices of Sonya), Annie, South Pacific, The Music Man, The Producers, Pride and Prejudice, Nicholas Nickleby. NY Theatre: I'll Say She Is, I Love You Because, improv at THE PIT. TV/Film: Hack My Life, Born in the Game, Goodbye. Favorite roles: Wife to Bob, and Mom to Ellie Ross, Jack and Andy. www.emilyturnermarsland.com
Josh Evans: Favorite credits include - Theatre: Hamlet: Dead for a Ducat (Six Part Productions); Remission (Columbia University); Rubber Ducks and Sunsets (Ground Up Productions); The Dumb Waiter (Under St. Marks). Film: Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight Pictures); Killing the Dog (Six Part Productions). Television: “FBI” (CBS), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon), “Gotham” (Fox) “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (Netflix), “Blacklist” (NBC). Graduate - UNC Chapel Hill and Michael Howard Studios. Company Member - Ground UP Productions. The work is dedicated to his parents and his wife.
joshlevans.com
Daniely Martins is an actress, writer and director, working with Ground Up as a Stage Manager. Born and raised in Brazil, she has always had the passion for moving people through words and a need for physical expression. Her pull towards discoveries brought her to live in Portugal, Germany and France, where she collected a great deal of experiences in human connection and theater studies. Now based in New York City, Daniely is involved in every aspect of theater production that comes her way, in the search to explore, grow and consolidate a strong career at the heart of the industry. Training: The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, in New York; and Cours Florent, in Paris, France.
Lisa McMillan: Selected Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include Moose Murders (w/ Eve Arden, Holland Taylor), La Cage Aux Folles (Arthur Laurents, director), Fix Me, Jesus (Abingdon Theatre Company), Ruthless, and Shear Madness. Among her numerous regional theatre credits are Shear Madness (The Kennedy Center), Mame (Walnut Street, Barrymore Award nominee), A Delicate Balance (Two River Theatre), August: Osage County (American Stage Company, Norton Award), A Moon For the Misbegotten (Coconut Grove, Carbonell Award), Gypsy (w/ Rita Moreno), Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and many productions at Florida Studio Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Utah Shakespeare Festival. She has appeared in feature films, commercials, and soaps. Directing credits include the Ordway and Galveston Musical Theatre. Lisa is a graduate of Juilliard.
Kate Middleton: Broadway/Off-Broadway: Music City (Ground UP Productions), Women Without Men (Mint Theatre), Shear Madness, New York City Premiere (New World Stages), The Other Place (MTC), The Late Christopher Bean (TACT), Asymmetric (59E59), Pratfalls (Abingdon). Select Regional: The Kennedy Center, ROE world premiere at The Goodman Theatre as Jane Roe, The Fountain Theatre, Pioneer Theatre Company, The Huntington, St. Louis Rep., GEVA, Cape Playhouse, Dorset Theatre Festival, Triad Stage, Playmakers Rep., NJ Shakespeare, Weston Playhouse, Warehouse Theatre, Bickford Theatre. TV: “Chicago Fire”, “Elementary”, “Blacklist”, “FBI: Most Wanted”, “Orange is the New Black”, “Blue Bloods”, “Mercy”, “Law & Order”, “Law & Order: SVU”, and Comedy Central. Film: The Boston Strangler, The Tender Bar, Spoiler Alert, Set It Up, Noah Wise, 40th, Obits, Showing Up, T.I.C., April Flowers. Producing Artistic Director of Ground UP Productions. TACT Company Member.
www.KateMiddletonActress.com
Celeste Oliva has just wrapped filming on Amazon’s new series “Obsession”. Some of the places she has worked: The Huntington Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lyric Stage, Speakeasy Stage, The Nora and off Broadway. Some television credits include, HBO’s Julia and We Own This City, Law and Order, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, NCIS Hawai’i and Grey’s Anatomy.
William Parry is happy to return to Ground UP, having appeared in last season’s, Ten Minutes On A Bench, by Kenneth Jones. He’s originated roles in numerous Broadway productions, including: Sunday in the Park with George, and Passion - both by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine - both filmed for PBS; Agamemnon at Lincoln Center; Gypsy with Bernadette Peters (dir. by Sam Mendes); Camelot (understudy to Richard Burton and Richard Harris); and, in ’71, the original Jesus Christ Superstar. Off-Broadway: original productions of Sondheim’s Assassins and Road Show; Dessa Rose at Lincoln Center; and Cymbeline and Dispatches at the Public Theater, among others. National Tours: A Few Good Men, Memphis, and Titanic (Capt. E.J. Smith). Some 40 regional productions - favorites include: Joe Keller in All My Sons, J. Edgar Hoover in All The Way, and Senator Higgins in Alabama Story (with Kate Middleton (!). Numerous TV and Film credits. Radio: Two seasons on Garrison Keillor’s, “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Tom Schwans This is Tom’s first time with Ground Up Productions. Tom is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Guerrilla Shakespeare Project (nominated for 4 New York Innovative Theatre Awards). He has acted all over the country for various theatres. Favorite roles include Jake (and others) in STONES IN HIS POCKETS, Starbuck in THE RAINMAKER, and Merrick in THE ELEPHANT MAN. Tom served as the Associate Artistic Director of The Old Creamery Theatre in Iowa and Artistic Director of the Deertrees Theatre Festival in Maine. He has also taught acting and directing at Fairfield University, Quinnipiac University, Southern Connecticut State University, Stockton University, and Brown University. In his spare time, Tom can be found playing Trivial Pursuit or bar trivia with anyone willing to buy him a drink. Tom holds a BA from Minnesota State University Moorhead and an MFA from Brown University/Trinity Rep.
Doug Shapiro is proud to be working with Ground UP Productions as part of his parole agreement. He also really loves breakfast. Sometimes Doug plays pretend for a living and you can find out all about that at www.dougshapiro.com
And hey, thank you for supporting new work.
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