Talking Dead (Red Solo)
by Rebecca S’manga Frank

Rebecca S’manga Frank is an actor, writer and director, passionate about the development of new works, particularly in Theatre Arts. Rebecca started performing in the Oakland Bay Area as a jazz singer with an improvisational ensemble out of Mills College. She found herself in a new play by Marcus Gardley in Berkeley, Ca, and has been on stages and in process ever since. Most recently she performed as Manke in Paula Vogel’s Yiddish, musical “Indecent” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her TV credits include Prodigal Son (FOX), Elementary (CBS), and an upcoming release on Apple TV+. She’s worked at the Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana New Play Festival, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, California Shakespeare Company, Red Bull Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, and Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in Morocco, as well as many other regional and off Broadway theatres. This summer she was slated to perform in a world premiere at Lincoln Center’s new play space, LCT3. After Covid hit, she and her theatre company began creating new work for Zoom with bi-weekly or monthly shows. Society Theatre Company is a New York based ensemble that works in the joint-stock method. As a director, Rebecca returned to Oakland in 2018 to direct a six-person “Romeo and Juliet” in a church in Downtown Oakland, partnering with local artists and designers. This summer Rebecca was commissioned by Hillel Metro Chicago to pen “A Psalm for Racial Justice,” updating the traditional Psalm 27 for the time leading up to the Jewish new year known as Elul. Rebecca holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Mills College and an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting program at the Tisch School of the Arts. She is a New Jewish Culture Fellow through Brooklyn Jews, with an upcoming project in 2021. She contributes writing and storytelling as an intersectional force for equity and advocate for Black Lives. Rebeccasmangafrank.com

Joshua David Robinson is a storyteller. As an actor Joshua has appeared Off and On Broadway and in regional theaters across the country, as well as working extensively as a voice over artist. As an educator he has worked at colleges and universities across the country, teaching voice, speech and theatrical devising to BFA and MFA students from from Arizona to New York. Holding an MFA from NYU’s Tisch Graduate Acting Program, Joshua is always working to use the art of storytelling, theatre in particular, as a means to engage with his community and as a vehicle for social change, because the stories we tell become our reality. Love, light, health and happiness to all.

Margaret Enhanced
A Film by Dawn Stern

(with Text by William Shakespeare)

DAWN STERN is a New York City-based AEA/SAG-AFTRA actor, member of the off-Broadway theatre collective The Coop, and COO of the non-profit organization
DE-CRUIT which received the 2020 Aaron Stein award from American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) given to an organization that utilizes creative applications of group therapy to benefit the community, especially in non-psychiatric settings.  She obtained her B.S. in Theatre Performance from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (SIU-E) and earned her AFTRA, AEA, and SAG union cards in St Louis and Chicago.  Dawn moved to Los Angeles in 1996 where she built a seventeen-year television acting career which includes six pilots, three series regular gigs and over twenty-five guest star appearances. Her highlights include: a series regular on Viper, 413 Hope Street, Starhunter and Nobody -a recurring role on the Young and the Restless and notable guest star appearances including: Star Trek: Enterprise, Ally McBeal, Profiler, Beverly Hills 90210, and True Blood.  A few of her favorite guest stars include working with Damon Wayans on My Wife and Kids, Steve Harvey on the Steve Harvey Show, Wanda Sykes on Wanda at Large and Monique on The Parkers. Her film credits include: The Fugitive and Original Gangstas.  Dawn moved to NYC in 2013 to develop DE-CRUIT with her husband, Stephan Wolfert.  DE-CRUIT treats trauma through Shakespeare & Science.  Dawn fell in love with Shakespeare at age 12 and has professionally played Kate, Lady Macbeth,  Olivia,  Paulina,  Goneril,  Elizabeth  and Margaret. She currently is co-chair of the Inclusion Diversity Equity Accessibility  (IDEA) committee for Shakespeare Theater Association (STA).

Altered State
By Gracy Brown

Gracy Brown Gracy is celebrating her seventh season with Elm Shakespeare Company. Credits include REGIONAL- Elm Shakespeare Company: Comedy of Errors (Emilia), (Love’s Labour’s Lost (Boyet), Romeo and Juliet (Nurse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Egeus), Pericles (Gower). Long Wharf Theatre: The Good Person of New Haven (Taiwa/Taiwo). Great Lakes Theater Festival: Peter Pan (Adult Wendy). Edinburgh Fringe Festival: A Clockwork Orange (Dr. Brodsky), Fahrenheit 451 (Mildred). Cornerstone Theatre Company: An Antigone Story (Ismene). Mark Taper Forum: For Here or to Go (Luce). Collective Consciousness Theatre Company’s Rasheeda Speaking (Jaclyn), Web Series: Ringer$(Claudia). Gracy is a proud alumnus of Southern Connecticut State University where she earned a BA in Theatre and is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Theatre Department. A proud member of Actor’s Equity Association.

 Altered State was originally commissioned as part of the New Works/New Voices series at Westport Country Playhouse, and was directed by Jenny Nelson.

Moderated by Kendell R. Pinkney

Kendell Pinkney is a Brooklyn based theatre-maker and dramaturg. He works and creates art at the intersection of race, identity, ritual and sacred text. His collaborative musical theatre works have been presented at venues such as 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, LABA @ the 14th St. Y, and Two River Theatre, to name a few. Beyond his work in the arts, he is a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary where he will be ordained next year.