Company – Pen Pals Play

CAST

Nia Vardalos

Performances January 2-12, 2025

Academy Award®, WGA, SAG, and Golden Globe nominated, People’s Choice and Independent Spirit award-winning screenwriter and actor, Nia Vardalos is the only woman to have solo written a film franchise. She is a New York Times bestselling author of her memoir Instant Mom and donates all proceeds to adoption charities placing over 2,000 children in permanent homes. Select film credits include the My Big Fat Greek Wedding trilogy, Connie and Carla, I Hate Valentine’s Day, Chucky, Ivy + Bean, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, “Motivated!” series for Audible, Wonder Woman, and “DuckTales”. Select stage credits: Additional material writer for the Cher Broadway Musical, award-winning alumna of The Second City, 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, Twelfth Night, Kismet, The Music Man, Company. Directed by Thomas Kail, Vardalos starred in the New York Times Critic’s Pick, her stage adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s book Tiny Beautiful Things

Gail Winar

Performances January 2-12, 2025

Acting credits include original roles in Pen Pals (NJ Rep); Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women (59E59, Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Missa Solemnis (Shotgun Productions); Beyond Gravity (NJ Rep); and What I Heard About Iraq (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), as well as numerous tours throughout the U.S., U.K., and Europe, As a director, producer, and/or creative consultant, Gail has collaborated on 50+ theater projects globally including Not Another Deaf Story at the Group Repertory Theatre in LA, TimeSlips at HERE Arts Center in NYC, and multiple award-winning productions at the internationally acclaimed Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As an educator, Gail has taught for the Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway, Kean University, Marymount Manhattan College, NYU/Lee Strasberg Studio, American Globe Theatre, National Shakespeare Company, and Theatre for a New Audience, as well as serving as guest lecturer at Stockholm University in Sweden, Starfish Academy in West Africa, and the Jakarta International School in Indonesia – among others.

Ellen McLaughlin

Performances January 20-26, 2025

Ellen McLaughlin has worked extensively in regional, international and New York theater, both as an actor and as a playwright.

Acting work includes originating the part of the Angel in Angels in America, playing the role in workshops and regional productions through its original Broadway run. Other favorite work includes Violet in August Osage County at Missouri Rep, King Lear in King Lear at Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Nancy in Seascape at ACT, San Francisco, the Homebody in Homebody/Kabul (Intiman, Seattle, WA), Pirate Jenny in A Threepenny Opera (Trinity Rep. Elliot Norton Award), Claire in Albee’s A Delicate Balance (Arena Stage, Yale Repertory Theater), Margie in Good People (George St. Theater, Seattle Rep.) Penelope, and The Year of Magical Thinking, (Playmakers’ Rep. NC.) Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (The McCarter, Paper Mill, N.J.)

Her plays have been produced Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. She has taught playwriting at Barnard College since 1995.

Mary Beth Peil

Performances January 20-26, 2025

MARY BETH PEIL (Mags) – In addition to her work on screen, Mary Beth is very well known in the theater world. Most recently, she worked opposite Una Clancy in The Dead, 1904 for the Irish Repertory Theatre. In 2017, she was nominated for a Tony, Drama Desk, & Outer Critics Award for Anastasia. Additional Broadway credits include es Liaisons Dangereuses; The Visit; Follies; Women on the Verge…; Sunday in the Park with Geroge; Nine; and the 1985 production of The King and I for which she received her first Tony nomination. Most recently, she was in Classic Stage Company’s off-Broadway productions of A Man of No Importance and Macbeth.

Pauletta Washington

Performances January 29 – February 2, 2025

Broadway: Jesus Christ Superstar, Sophisticated Ladies, Shakespeare’s Cabaret, The All Night Strut! Off-Broadway: Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Union Square Theatre), Desperate Writers, (Union Square Theater), Soul Possessed (The Kennedy Center), Spiritual, Jerry’s Girls, Regional: A Christmas Show (Lincoln Center Theater) Film/TV: “Genius: Aretha Franklin” (Director Anthony Hemingway), “She’s Gotta Have It” season two (Director Spike Lee), The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story (Director Nelson George), “The Parkers” (Director Tony Singletary), Beloved (Director Jonathan Demme), Wilma (Director Bud Greenspan), “Reasonable Doubt” (EP Kerry Washington).

Kate Burton

Performances January 29-February 2, 2025

Broadway: Present Laughter 2017 (Kevin Kline), Spring Awakening, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, An American Daughter, Wild Honey, Company, Doonesbury and Jake’s Women. Tony nominated for Hedda Gabler (directed by Nicholas Martin), The Elephant Man (directed by Sean Mathias) and The Constant Wife (directed by Mark Brokaw. Drama Desk nominated for Some Americans Abroad (directed by Roger Michell). Theater World Award winner for Present Laughter 1982 (starring and directed by George C Scott). s. Film/TV: Dumb Money, The Anne Frank Gift Shop, Our Son, “Inventing Anna,” “The Dropout,” Unfaithful, Ice Storm, 127 Hours, 2 Days in NY, Liberal Arts, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Celebrity, Big Trouble in Little China, “Homeland,” “Empire Falls”,“Scandal”, “Grey’s Anatomy”. Three Tony noms, three Emmy noms, Emmy winner. Professor at USC/Brown. Brown/Yale grad.

Nancy McKeon

Performances February 5 – 9, 2025

An actress, director, and producer best known for playing the role of Jo Polniaczek on the beloved long-running 1980s sitcom, “The Facts of Life.” She starred in and produced the sitcom “Can’t Hurry Love” and starred with Jean Smart in the sitcom “Style & Substance.” She portrayed Inspector Jinny Exstead on the Lifetime police drama “The Division” from 2001 to 2004. She also directed two episodes. McKeon starred in numerous made-for-TV movies in the 1980s and 1990s, some including A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story, in which she portrayed the title role of Tracey Thurman, and Firefighter portraying the first female firefighter in Los Angeles County. Strange Voices, she portrayed a woman with schizophrenia. “Love, Honor and Obey”; “The Last Mafia Marriage” , mini series with Eric Roberts. She produced many of these movies through her film company, Forest Hills Entertainment. In 1999, she wrote and directed her own short film, A Wakening. The film won two film festival awards.

Johanna Day

Performances February 5 – 9, 2025

Broadway: How I Learned to Drive, The Nap, Sweat (Tony Nomination), You Can’t Take It With You, August: Osage County, Lombardi, Proof (Tony Nomination). Theatre: Scene Partners (Vineyard), Floyd’s (Guthrie) Peace for Mary Francis (New Group), Peter and Jerry (Second Stage – Drama Desk Nomination) Appropriate (Signature – Obie Award, The Lilly Award), Poor Behavior (Mark Taper), Realistic Joneses (Yale), Choice (Huntington), The Rainmaker (Arena Stage – Helen Hayes Award), How I Learned to Drive (Vineyard). Television: “Bull”, “The Good Fight”, “Madam Secretary” (5 Years Recurring), “For Life”, “New Amsterdam”, “The Blacklist”, “Escape at Dannemora”, “The Knick”, “The Americans”, “Masters of Sex”. Film: Worth, The Post, Great Gilley Hopkins, How Far She Went, The Breatharian.

Catherine Curtin

Performances December 26 – 29, 2024

Catherine Curtin has made her mark on over 150 screens large and small. Current: Saturday Night (Dir. Jason Reitman, TIFF/Sony). Recurring roles on “Stranger Things”, “Orange Is the New Black” and “Partner Track”, “Homeland”, and “Insecure”; and, she has appeared in “Awkwafina”, “Tommy”, “The Loudest Voice”, “The Blacklist”, “Mindhunter”, “Blue Bloods”, “Bull”, “Law & Order”, and “Surveillance”. Starring roles in films: Bad Shabbos (Dir. Daniel Robbins, Tribeca Film Festival 2024); If That Mockingbird Don’t Sing (Dir. Sadie Bones, Bentonville 2024); and, streaming, Werewolves Within (dir. Josh Ruben, Hulu), Worth (dir. Sara Colangelo, Netflix), Bad Education (dir. Cory Finley, HBO), Blush (dir. Debra Eisenstadt, Sundance/Prime), The Half of It (Dir. Alice Wu, Netflix), Founders Day (Dir. Erik Bloomquist, Prime/Shutter), Hangdog (dir. Matt Cascella, Provincetown), Poof (dir. Margaret Miller/ Cannes), and 18 1⁄2 (dir. Dan Mirvish, IFC/Fandango), Beauty Mark (dir. Harris Doran/Woodstock) among others. She is the recipient of 11 wins and 12 nominations for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, including the SAG Awards for Best Ensemble in 2015 and 2016 for “OITNB”, and SAG nomination in 2018 for her role in “Stranger Things”. Insta: catecurtin.

Sharon Lawrence

Performances December 26 – 29, 2024

A journalism graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, Sharon has gone on to be prominently featured on stage and screen over the last 40 years. Currently on “Joe Pickett” series on Paramount+ her television work includes her multiple EMMY nominated and SAG award winning run as Sylvia on “NYPD Blue”, as well as stints on shows such as, “Shameless”, “Dynasty”, “Desperate Housewives”, “Rizzoli & Isles”, “Walker”and “Grey’s Anatomy” earning her 4th EMMY nomination. Film work includes Middle of Nowhere from Ava DuVernay and The Lost Husband, both on Netflix. Broadway- Cabaret, Fiddler on the Roof and as Velma in Chicago ; Off Bway in Tongue of a Bird at The Public and Love, Loss, and What I Wore at the Westside and recently as WashPo’s publisher, Katharine Graham in the multi-award winning solo play The Shot at Theatre Row. Multiple roles at the major LA theaters- The Mark Taper Forum, The Wallis, The Geffen, Pasadena Playhouse including Orson’s Shadow, with 2 nominations for Ovation Awards and win from LA Drama Critics Circle. Sharon was nominated for her 5th EMMY TheGazeseries.com series which also streamed on CTGLA’s DigitalStage. Sharon’s non-profit service includes former Chair of the Women in Film Foundation, current BoD of Heal The Bay and as a Trustee of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation IG @sharonelawrence

CREATIVE TEAM

Photo credit: James Noone

Michael Griffo

He has written over 20 plays including 9th Street Water, The Date, Klaxson ’77, No More Sundays – winner of the New Jersey Perry Award for Best Original Play, Can Dina Even Spell Afghanistan? – finalist for the Reva Shiner Comedy Award, and CLOUDY and 5G/10B – both of which were published in Smith & Kraus’s 2005: The Best 10-Minute Plays for Two Actors. His High School plays – Material Girls and Promapocalypse! – are licensed by Theatrical Rights Worldwide. He has published 15 novels with Kensington Books including Between Boyfriends, The Archangel Academy Trilogy, The Darkborn Legacy Series, and The Ferrara Family Mystery Series. His new mystery series launched in September 2023 with the publication of Murder In An Italian Village, followed by Murder In An Italian Café, which was published in September 2024. Here’s my website link. https://michaelgriffo.com/

SuzAnne Barabas

She is the Founding Artistic Director of NJ Rep. For NJ Rep, SuzAnne directed the world premiere of The Two Hander (with Jill Eikenberry and Ella Dershowitz), Find Me a Voice, North Fork (premiere), Immortal Interlude (premiere), Octet (premiere), Till Morning Comes (premiere), Maggie Rose, Getting in Touch With My Inner B*tch (starring Christine Lavin, premiere), The Adjustment, 10% of Molly Snyder, Romulus Linney’s Klonsky & Schwartz, Apostasy (premiere), Women Who Steal, Apple, The Housewives of Mannheim (premiere), Evie’s Waltz, Dead Ringer (premiere), Steven Dietz’s Yankee Tavern, Puma (premiere), Night Train (premiere), Just In Time: The Judy Holliday Story, Bakersfield Mist, Annapurna, Happy, Broomstick (premiere), Lucky Me (premiere), Swimming at the Ritz (U.S. premiere), and The Realization of Emily Linder (premiere). SuzAnne directed productions of The Housewives of Mannheim at 59E59 Theater (NYC), Ensemble Theater of Santa Barbara (CA), and Phoenix Theater (Indianapolis). In addition, she directed regional productions of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, The Fantasticks, The Roar of the Greasepaint the Smell of the Crowd, Cabaret, Shaw’s Heartbreak House, A.R. Gurney’s The Perfect Party, Marsha Norman’s ‘Night Mother, Philip Barry’s The Philadelphia Story, Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy, Mark Dunn’s Belles, Lee Blessing’s Down the Road, among others. She is a member of AEA, BMI, the Dramatists Guild, SDC, and LPTW.