Galas

Charles Ludlam was Artistic director, playwright, director, designer and star of New York’s acclaimed Ridiculous Theatrical Company. The late Charles Ludlam ransacked theatrical and literary history in an evolutionary quest for a modern art of stage comedy. His more than 30 plays – most famously, Bluebeard, Camille, Galas, and the Mystery of Irma Vep – are among the most thought-provoking entertainments in the modern repertoire. Born April 12,1943 in Floral Park, NY. Conveniently, a movie theater was across the street from their home. He and his mother attended often fostering his love of all things theatrical. At 17 he founded The Students’ Repertory Theater in Northport, NY. A graduate of Hofstra University, he staged his first play of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, When Queens Collide in 1967. During his 20 years with the Ridiculous, Charles Ludlam won Obie and Drama Desk Awards, as well as playwriting fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Ford foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts. His plays are performed around the world. Bio taken from the book: Ridiculous Theater: Scourge of Human Folly; Essays and Opinions of Charles Ludlam. Edited by Steven Samuels

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo began performing professionally at the age of 11 and has since appeared in opera, concert, recital, film, and on Broadway. He was recently awarded a GRAMMY, an Honorary Doctorate from Manhattan School of Music, a visiting fellowship from Oxford University, and the History Makers Award from the New York Historical Society, and in the spring will be a distinguished visiting scholar at Harvard. This season, he returns to the Metropolitan Opera after staring in Akhnaten, in another title role as Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, the Santa Fe Opera for a world premiere, and to the Teatro Real; makes his Paris Opera debut,
gives solo recitals at the Kennedy Center and Boston’s Jordan Hall, makes his debut at the Wigmore Hall in London, and appears in Carnegie Hall with the Met Chamber Orchestra. As a producer, he has created projects for Opera Philadelphia, The New York Philharmonic, The BBC Proms, WQXR, and St. Ann’s Warehouse among others.

Eric Ting is a two-time Obie Award-winning director whose work spanning theater, opera and dance has been seen across the US and internationally. Theater credits include the world premieres of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ THE COMEUPPANCE (Signature Theater); The 1491s’ BETWEEN TWO KNEES (PAC NYC; Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Toshi and Bernice Johnson
Reagon’s PARABLE OF THE SOWER: THE OPERA (NYU Abu Dhabi, Lincoln Center); Lloyd Suh’s THE FAR COUNTRY (Atlantic Theater Co); Alina Troyano and Jacobs-Jenkins’ GIVE ME CARMELITA TROPICANA and Jackie Sibblies Drury’s WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT A PRESENTATION… (Soho Rep); Nora Chipaumire’s MIRIAM (BAM Next Wave); and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s THE WORLD OF EXTREME HAPPINESS (Manhattan Theater Club; Goodman). Ting is one of three Directors of Soho Repertory Theater in New York City, and a proud member of SDC.

Mimi Lien is a designer of sets/environments for theater, dance, and opera. Arriving at set design from a background in architecture, her work often focuses on the interaction between audience/environment and object/performer. Recent work includes Antony & Cleopatra and Grounded (Metropolitan Opera), Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! (Soho Rep), In A Grove (Pittsburgh Opera/PROTOTYPE), Parsifal (Bayreuther Festspiele), The Righteous (Santa Fe Opera), Intelligence (Houston Grand Opera), The Comet/Poppea (The Industry/AMOC*), Die Zauberflöte (Staatsoper Berlin), Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Tony Award), Sweeney Todd (Tony nomination), True West (Roundabout), Fairview and An Octoroon (Soho Rep), and A 24 Decade History of Popular Music (St. Ann’s Warehouse). Her large-scale public artworks include The GREEN at Lincoln Center; PARADE, a conveyor-belt installation commissioned by The Bentway in Toronto; and MODEL HOME, a performance installation utilizing a 60-ft crane in San Diego. In 2015, she became the first set designer ever to be honored with a MacArthur Fellowship. She has also received a Bessie Award, Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity at Lincoln Center Theater, and OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence. She is a co-founder of the Brooklyn performance/art space JACK.

Opera Credits: Il Trovatore (Houston Grand Opera), Factotum (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Primero Sueño directed by Louisa Proske (The MET Cloisters) New York Broadway Credits: Stereophonic (Tony Nom), Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, The Cottage, KPOP Broadway, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf (Tony Nom), Slave Play (Tony, Drama Desk, Henry Hewes Noms), Recipient of Suzi Bass Award & Obie Award.

Tei Blow is a media designer, technologist and performance maker. Tei’s work has been seen at Hartford Stage, Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, Lincoln Center, The Kitchen, BAM, The Public Theater, The Broad Stage, MCA Chicago, MFA Boston, Kate Werble Gallery, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Roundabout, The Wadsworth Atheneum, and at theaters around the world. He has been nominated for 2 Bessie Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award, the recipient of The Obie Award, The Henry Hewes Award, NYSCA Composer’s Grant, the Bessie Award, the FCA Grants to Artists Award, and the Creative Capital Award.

Bio to come.

BROADWAY: Eureka Day, The Hills of California, Uncle Vanya, Death of a Salesman, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Parisian Woman, Hand to God, The Heidi Chronicles, The Performers, Golda’s Balcony, and Metamorphoses. OFF-BROADWAY: Lincoln Center Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre Company, New York City Center Encores!, Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theater Company, The Public Theater, Vineyard Theatre, Ars Nova, Soho Rep, Classic Stage Company, Second Stage, MET, Cherry Lane Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop. REGIONAL: Shakespeare Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, Paper Mill Playhouse, New York Stage and Film, A.R.T., Wadsworth Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, A.C.T., Contemporary American Theater Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Cal Shakes, City Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville. IG: @veronawall