justforus.stagelightmagazine.comAlex Edelman's Just For Us – The Cherry Lane Theater

Who’s Who ALEX EDELMAN ( Writer/Performer ) is a comedian and writer whose Orthodox Jewish upbringing has informed his critically and commercially acclaimed work for the stage, screen and – weirdly – radio. His first solo show, Millennial , won the 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer, the first American show to do so since 1997. He is a Herald Award Angel winner, a Melbourne Comedy Award nominee, the host of BBC R4’s Peer Group and has two differently sized feet. At the start of the pandemic, he served as the head writer and executive producer of Saturday Night Seder, a star-studded 70-minute special, posted on YouTube, that has so far raised $3.5 million for the CDC Foundation (COVID-19) Emergency Response Fund. He’s so very grateful you’re here. ADAM BRACE ( Director ) is Associate Director at Soho Theatre, London where he works across Comedy, Theatre and Performance Art. As a playwright his work has been produced by the National Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse. In comedy he has developed a varied range of work including 6 Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated shows, 2 Herald Angel Award-winners, 2 Barry Award- nominees and a Southbank Award. He was Creative Supervisor on Soho Theatre’s Amazon Prime series and has been Live Director on a number of filmed specials for HBO, Amazon Prime and BBC. He has worked with Alex Edelman since 2014 and still finds him funny. AMINA ALEXANDER ( Lighting Designer ) Freelance lighting designer/associate. Recently graduated from Western Illinois University with her MFA in lighting design. Recipient of the Black Theatre Coalition fellowship 2021. Designs include Power Play done at The Shed, Colin Quinn’s The Last Best Hope at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, and Silkroad 2021 at A.R.T. (Associate). Amina is thrilled to be apart of this production. MARGARET MONTAGNA ( Sound Designer ) is a New York City based sound designer, originally from Brooklyn. Select design credits include: Unstuck (The Tank), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (The New School), A Woman of the World (59E59 Studio C), Raw Pasta (The New Ohio Theater), Pippin (Theater for a New City), Anna in the Tropics (Stella Adler Studios), Queen (Astoria Boys and Girls Club), Prisoners of Quai Dong (The Tank), Williston (IATI), Holy ghosts (Urban Stages), They Promised Her the Moon (Theatre at St. Clements) margaretmontagnasd.com. TAYLOR JO POER ( Production Coordinator ) is a theatrical and event manager working in New York City. She works on a variety of projects, from traditional theatre to events and popups. Most recently she was the onsite manager for Lightscape at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Other recent projects include Open Boulevards with the Department of Transportation and Open Culture Works, and Red Stage in Astor Place, with Creative Time. CLAUDIA McCOY ( Company Manager ) is a television, voice-over, and theatre actress from NYC. One of her biggest accomplishments was working on a scripted audio series for Marvel. In 2017, her performance in the Negro Ensemble Company’s production of Daughters of the Mock has earned her an AUDELCO VIV” award for Oustanding Ensemble Performance. When she is not on a stage, on screen, or in a recording booth, you can find her working behind the scenes as a Company Manager for various producing companies. She currently works for the Off-Broadway company, Primary Stages. MIKE BIRBIGLIA ( Executive Producer ) is a comedian, writer, director, and producer. His solo shows Sleepwalk With Me , My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend , Thank God For Jokes and The New One enjoyed successful Off Broadway runs. My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show and The New One moved to Broadway where he received the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle award for outstanding solo performance. Birbiglia is also an author and filmmaker who wrote, directed and starred in the films Sleepwalk with Me” and Don’t Think Twice.” As a producer he worked on Jacqueline Novak’s Get On Your Knees.” He is currently touring his next solo show The Old Man and The Pool.” JOSEPH BIRBIGLIA ( Producer ) has run Reality Testing Inc. since 2006, writing and producing on Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me for theatre and film, theatrical productions of My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, Thank God for Jokes, the film Don’t Think Twice, Mike Birbiglia’s The New One on Broadway , and The Old Man and the Pool, currently in development . Joseph also produces Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out, a comedy podcast . CARLEE BRIGLIA ( Producer ) is one half of Mike and Carlee Productions. Selected credits include Colin Quinn: The Last Best Hope ( Lucille Lortel Theatre), Jacqueline Novak: Get On Your Knees ( Cherry Lane Theatre ), Colin Quinn: Red State Blue State (Minetta Lane Theatre) Nick Kroll and John Mulaney’s Oh Hello On (Off) Broadway (Cherry Lane Theatre) , Chris Gethard Career Suicide (Lynn Redgrave Theater), Neal Brennan 3 Mics (Lynn Redgrave Theater) Colin Quinn: Unconstitutional (Cherry Lane Theatre), Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (Barrow St Theatre). Film: Crown Heights (Sundance Audience Award), Love Beats Rhymes, Other People’s People (HollyShorts Award Winner). Carlee wants you to know that she stayed in Brooklyn during the pandemic and she did get a new cat but was otherwise fine. mikeandcarlee.com MIKE LAVOIE ( Producer ) is the older, grayer half of Mike and Carlee Productions. Credits include Oh Hello On (Off) Broadway, Get On Your Knees, Mike Birbiglia’s The New One, Thank God For Jokes, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, Sleepwalk With Me, Colin Quinn’s The Last Best Hope, Red State Blue State, New York Story, Unconstitutional, Chris Gethard’s Career Suicide. Film: Other People’s People (Austin Film Festival). Mike lives in Brooklyn with his chaise lounge and lots of Advil. mikeandcarlee.com. PETER SALOMONE ( Associate Producer ) is a writer and producer for Reality Testing, Inc. He is a producer and editor of Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out” podcast and was a creative consultant on Mike Birbiglia’s The New One on Broadway.” For better or worse, Peter may be best known for his series of online videos entitled The Walk of Life Project.” GRAPEVINE PR ( Publicity ) is a full-service boutique P.R. firm specializing in theatrical talent. Founded by longtime press agents Molly Barnett and Chelsea Nachman, grapevine has worked with a myriad of Award-winning Broadway actors, composers, playwrights, directors and more. Before starting grapevine in 2017, the duo worked as a team at DKC/O&M, one of the industry’s leading firms. There, they helped spearhead more than forty campaigns for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including the Tony Award-winning productions of Dear Evan Hansen , Kinky Boots , Beautiful , Fun Home and many more. To learn more, visit www.grapevineprny.com or follow them on Instagram @grapevineprny. (And while you’re at it, give their personal handles a follow too – @mollybarnett / @chelseanachman) CHERRY LANE THEATRE ( History ) The site of a silo on the Gomez farm in 1817, the building that now stands at 38 Commerce Street was a brewery, built in 1836 that later served as a tobacco warehouse, then box factory. In 1923, a group of theater artists, colleagues of Evelyn Vaughn and Edna St. Vincent Millay, commissioned famed scenic designer Cleon Throckmorton to convert the box factory into Cherry Lane Playhouse. It fueled some of the most ground-breaking experiments in the chronicles of the American Stage. The Downtown Theater movement, The Living Theatre, and Theatre of the Absurd all took root at the lively Playhouse, and it proved fertile ground for 20th century dramaturgy’s seminal voices. From this village jewel streamed a large succession of plays by nascent writers whose names have lent distinction to the American and international literary and dramatic treasuries from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dos Passos and Elmer Rice in the ’20s to O’Neill, O’Casey, Odets, Auden, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot and William...