The Center at West Park presents

CREATIVE TEAM

Calaine Schafer (Actor, Producer)
Bilal Walker (Actor)
Peca Stefan (Concept, Writer)
Ana Margineanu (Concept, Director)
Tamilla Woodard (Concept)
Tai Thompson (Associate Director, Light Design)
Carly Bauer (Marketing)

PRODUCTION TEAM

Madelyn Paquette (Production manager)
Amanda Kettell (Stage manager)
Joe Bilello (Technical director)

CREATIVE TEAM BIOS

POPUP THEATRICS is a partnership between theatre artists Tamilla Woodard, Ana Margineanu, and Peca Stefan. PopUP Theatrics’ mission is to create site-impacting theatrical events. PopUP performed in New York, Berlin, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Edinburgh, and Bucharest (to name a few); collaborated with over 300 artists worldwide and has garnered critical praise from press outlets worldwide (New York Times, El Pais, Clarin, Huffington Post, UK and Huffington Post NYC among many others). Their most recent production, LONG DISTANCE AFFAIR was awarded Outstanding Achievement in Livestreamed Production by No Proscenium in 2022. Other achievements include receiving 7 New York Innovative Theatre Awards and 4 Awards, including Best Ensemble for The Window and The Special Jury Award at the Romanian Independent Theatre Festival Bucharest for INSIDE. Website: www.popuptheatrics.com

ANA MARGINEANU (Concept, Director) is a theatre director who works both nationally and internationally. Ana Margineanu is co-founder of PopUP Theatrics, a partnership creating immersive theatrical events around the world and in collaboration with international theatre artists. Ana Margineanu’s work has been presented and/or developed at the Juggernaut, 3LD Art & Technology Center, Working Theater, Urban Stages, NYTW, The Lark, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Secret Theatre, and in numerous theaters and festivals in Europe, most notably: New Plays from Europe Wiesbaden, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, National Theatre Festival Bucharest, Sibiu International Theatre Festival. She has also directed, taught, and facilitated workshops at Colleges and Universities like The New School, SUNY, NYU, Pace University, Wesleyan University, Queens College, National Theater, and Film University of Bucharest. Called "one of the reigning queens of New York's highly intimate, one-shot-only, conceptual-based theater" by the NYC critic Randy Gener, Ana Margineanu is known for close cooperation with the local communities who are audiences for her work, highly metaphoric visual style, and ability to draw raw, visceral performances from her actors. Find more about her work: www.anamargineanu.com

CALAINE SCHAFER (Actor, Producer) is thrilled to be teaming up with PopUP Theatrics again! Other theater credits include Measure for Measure (A Very Good Theatre Company), Plucker (Company of Fools), The Hot L Baltimore (Harold Clurman Lab Theatre Company), Broken City Wall Street (PopUP Theatrics), Crisis: Ocean Planet (Gallery Players), Patronage (Random Access Theatre), Holy Crab! (Ensemble Studio Theatre), A Long Distance Affair (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Snorks and Pins), Twelfth Night (Roundtable Ensemble/Lake George Theater Lab). Calaine is also the co-creator of the award-winning web series BE Bettina & Elaine (www.betheseries.com). BFA from NYU Tisch (The Stella Adler Studio of Acting and Royal Academy of Dramatic of Art). Website: www.calaineschafer.com.

BILAL WALKER (Actor) is a native New Yorker with roots in Theater. Bilal Walker has worked with PopUP Theatrics since 2016, working in the ensembles of Broken City: Wall Street and Inside. Other productions he performed in include A Raisin in the Sun, Othello, H.O.M.E. - A New Play, and the One Minute Play Festival at the New Ohio Theater. Bilal studied theater at The City College of New York, classical studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, and Scene Study with Matthew Harrison at the Actor’s Foundry in Vancouver, B.C. You can find him on IMDB here: imdb.me/bilalwalker.

CARLY J. BAUER (Marketing) is excited to be back with PopUP Theatrics' LIAR! She has been producing, casting, and different-types-of-managing theatre in NYC for a decade. Most recently, Carly has been a Covid Safety Manager for various Broadway shows, currently The Phantom of the Opera, and next up, Wicked. Carly has been part of Theater Resources Unlimited’s Producer Development and Mentorship Program and received her Master of Science in Media Management from The New School in 2021. She would like to thank everyone who worked on LIAR!

TAI THOMPSON (Associate Director, Light Design) is an NYC-based multidisciplinary artist specializing in new works and immersive theater. As a deviser and director, Tai's work is character-driven and socially conscious, spanning from hyper-realistic to satirical. Her work focuses on history, bridging cultural gaps, and identity of self. She has directed large-scale historical immersive productions throughout the US, including multiple collaborations with Juggerknot Theatre’s critically acclaimed series, Miami Motel Stories. Directed the sold-out premiere of the Josephine Baker musical, Dark Star from Harlem, which won 5 AUDELCO Awards in 2020, including Best Musical and Best Director. 2018 SDCF winner assisting on The Color Purple (PCS), 2018 Inaugural NAMT Observer assisting Stephen Brackett on A.D. 16. 2019 Drama League Fellow assisting Barry Edelstein on Romeo and Juliet (Old Globe). 2022 Old Globe Classical Theatre Fellow. Resident Director at Juggerknot Theatre in Miami and Brave New World Rep in Brooklyn. Finalist for WP Theater’s 2020-2022 Director’s Lab. Also a playwright, Tai was a 2022 Finalist for both the Next Stages and Beatrice Terry Residencies at the Drama League. Plays include Kleonostium (Old Globe), the one-woman show Not Quite Ripe, and Lucky. Selected work: A Chance for Redemption (New Professional Theatre), The Takedown (Old Globe), Breathe (New Professional Theatre), Warriors (TheatreWorks), Moon Man Walk (FSU), Go Down, Moses (BNW), Long Distance Affair (PopUP Theatrics/Juggerknot- 2022 NoProscenium Audience Choice Award, 2021 Miami New Times Best Play Award), Miami Bus Stop Stories (winner Knight Foundation New Work 2020).

PRODUCTION AND MAJOR SUPPORT Credits

LIAR is presented through a residency at The Center at West Park and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

SPECIAL THANKS

WP Theater, Working Theater, Theater Lab, and Romanian Cultural Institute in New York for helping us to develop the work and to collect lies.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The Center at West Park is a not-for-profit community performing arts center based in the historic West Park Presbyterian Church, a New York City landmark on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

We recognize that this land where we are privileged to be is the unceded territory and ancestral home of the Munsee Lenape. Today, members of the Lenape and many other indigenous sovereign nations continue to live, work, and create in New York City.

For over 30 years in the mid-19th century, this land was home to Seneca Village, the first free Black community in New York City. In 1857, the city used eminent domain to forcibly remove the residents and demolish their homes, schools, and churches to make room for the construction of Central Park.

Since its construction in 1889, this building has been home to countless artists and activists:

In 1978, West Park led the way in openly welcoming LGBTQ+ members as part of the More Light Movement.

From 1980 to 1985, West Park was home to The Shakespeare Center and the renowned Riverside Shakespeare Company.

From 1987 to 1991, God’s Love We Deliver worked out of West Park’s kitchen to serve up to 250 meals per day to people living with AIDS during the height of the crisis.

The West Park Presbyterian Church building was named a New York City Landmark in 2010. In 2016, The Center at West Park was founded by a coalition of community members to preserve and revitalize West Park as a community resource and home for arts and culture.

We are deeply inspired by the legacy of those who have called this land and this building home before us. We hope to honor them in all our work today and in the future.

ABOUT THE CENTER AT WEST PARK

The Center at West Park is a community performing arts center based in the historic West Park Presbyterian Church, a New York City landmark. We present engaging and boundary-pushing early-career and established artists through our artist residency programs, provide affordable rental space for artists to develop their work, and steward the restoration of our historic home’s landmark exterior. The Center is a secular, 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

This program is made possible by the generous support of audience members like you. To make a donation to support future residencies, go to centeratwestpark.org/donate.

Staff

Natasha Katerinopoulos, Managing Director
Zachary Tomlinson, Artistic Director
Dane Jerabek, Marketing & Box Office Manager
Richard Pimentel, Fascilities Manager
David Shocket, Consulting Technical Director
Gary Eisenkraft, CPA, Accountant
Mercedes Marrero-Alvarado, Porter
Dion Thompson, Porter

EVOLUTION FESTIVAL PRODUCTION TEAM

Madelyn Paquette, Line Producer
Olaiya Olayemi, Artistic Doula
Amanda Kettell, Stage Manager
Bleu Zephra, Stage Manager
Joe Bilello, Technical Director

OBJECT MOVEMENT CURATORS

Maiko Kikuchi
Rowan Magee
Marcella Murray
Justin Perkins

FALL 2022 GUEST CURATORS

Christina Franklin
Melanie Greene
Trevor Weston

Board of directors

Marian M. Warden, President
Marsha Flowers, Vice President
Theodore S. Berger, Treasurer
Beryl Abrams, Secretary
Jennifer Rogers Carlock
Don Frantz
Derrick McQueen
Mitchell Schamroth
Susan E. Sullivan