The EST Director in Residence program provides a forum for emerging directors to be actively involved in the workings of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. This season we have four exceptionally talented Resident Directors. Please take a moment to get to know them!

Jeremy Bloom directs his original adaptations of plays including La Boheme (Spoken), Peter-Wendy (Dark) and Leaves of Grass (Nude), as well as the work of new playwrights, and classic operas and musicals. In New York, he has directed at The Flea, Walkerspace, The Cherry Lane, Incubator Arts Project, NYU Grad, 45 Bleecker, The New York Botanical Gardens, in festivals, site specifically, and at the cell where he is a resident artist. Favorite assistant credits include The Met, Broadway, Berkeley Rep, The Goodman, and LCT3 (most frequently for Mary Zimmerman). Jeremy is a Drama League Directing Fellow, participated in the TS Eliot US/UK Exchange at The Old Vic and Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. jeremybloomplays.com

Liz Carlson is a director and producer who primarily focuses on the development and production of new plays and musicals. Her mission is to build a community that is committed to the playwright’s text; and then lead that community in realizing the story at hand through honest, structured portrayal and cohesive design. Liz craves intellectually and viscerally stimulating work. Recent work includes: The Only Child by Jessica Hinds (The New York International Fringe Festival); The 1′s and The 2′s by Donaldo Prescod (#serials@TheFlea); Talk to Moi by Stacy Davidowitz (#serials@TheFlea); Iris by Judith Goudsmit (The New School for Drama); Conspiracy: A Love Story by Victor Lesniewski, Music by Ronnie Reshef (Midtown International Theatre Festival); Barron, CA by Jessica Hinds (Sam French OOB Festival). Assistant Directing: Giant by Sybille Pearson, Music by Michael John LaChiusa, dir. Michael Greif (Dallas Theatre Center); All My Sons by Arthur Miller, dir. Harris Yulin (The Juilliard School); Knickerbocker by Jonathan Marc Sherman, dir. Pippin Parker (The Public Theater). Ensemble-generated work includes Vlieg in je Snor and What You Crave at The New School, and Another Effin’ Cabaret for The Duplex Cabaret Theatre. Member of the SDC Observership Pool. BA in Art History from Loyola University Maryland; MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama. Upcoming: A Kid Like Jake by Daniele Pearle in March at The New School for Drama.

Maryna Harrison is a director who makes fresh, muscular re-envisionings of classics and lyrical, immediate new work that challenges our expectations. She creates work that is visceral, spectacular and emotionally rooted. She values bravery and ingenuity and believes that empathy is an important muscle to develop in human beings and the most powerful, influential, and valuable gift we have to offer our audiences and the biggest way we can impact the world and the future. Maryna was a founding Artistic Director of Red Stage Theater Company in Burlington, VT, where she directed Jonathan Franzen’s translation of Spring Awakening, Adam Bock’s Five Flights, Archibald MacLeish’s J.B., and the premier of Josh Levine’s Game Over. She recently earned her MFA in directing from Rutgers, where she directed Pinter’s Betrayal, Jose Rivera’s Marisol, Marsha Norman’s Getting Out, John Kolvenbach’s Love Song, and Horton Foote’s Blind Date. She In New York, she has directed and developed new work at HERE, Vital Theatre, manhattantheatresource, Soho Thinktank at the Ohio, and First Look at NYU.  She directed her adaptation of The Waves for the International Virginia Woolf Conference. She lead a workshop at New Georges using lost myths and archetypes of women with power to inspire new theater pieces.  She also directed Russian Symbolist poet Marina Tsvetaeva’s The Snowstorm for the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Last season, she was the Artistic Resident at Long Wharf Theatre where she directed Mac Wellman’s musical tigertigertiger. She also worked with Gordon Edelstein on his adaptation of International Lawyer Phillippe Sands book, Torture Team. She has assisted Gordon Edelstein, Eric Ting, Amy Saltz, Darko Tresnjak and Anne Kaufman.  She is currently working on an unconventional adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s The Great God Brown and directing Aaron Jafferis’ Stories of a New America, and George Brant’s Salvage. She is a slavophile who studied at the Moscow Art Theater. She has a degree in Russian and Theater from Smith College and a small box of pine needles she gathered from Chekhov’s grave.

If Nick Leavens were any more excited to be working with EST his head would figuratively explode with joy. And perhaps it already has. Nick is a director, producer and writer with a focus on new works. He is currently the Founder/Artistic Director of |the claque|, an Artistic Associate with At Hand Theatre, a founding member of Brooklyn based performance and writers collective BOOMSLANG and was the Artistic Director/Producer of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival in 2010 and the Producer of The Funny 2004, 2005. Nick was the Company Manager of Atlantic Theater Company from 2005-2007, Bay Street Theater in 2005, Pennsylvania Center Stage in 2003, Production Manager of Vital Theatre in 2004 and an Equity stage manager Off-Broadway. His directing credits include: NEW YORK: Lieutenant of Inishmore (assistant director, Broadway/off-Broadway), Research: a novel for performance (|theclaque|), Wipe Away (Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival), Meanwhile in Baghdad, Apocalypse: Book One (New York International Fringe Festival), Be True to Your School (At Hand Theatre), Speaking in Stomachs (SITEfest 2010) Family Bonding, Love Match, The Arab and the Restless (New York Arab-American Comedy Festival), Wishing Time (Vital Theater), DJ Jesus (The Funny) as well as countless readings. His day job is working as a Warrior Poet at MoMA, he dreams at night of flying, breathing under water and how the third person plural is far superior to the third person singular… We do… We do… For more information, specifically an old picture with the caption “coming soon,” visit nickleavens.org

Bunchback Mountain
The Queer Brunch!

Sunday February 5 @ 1pm

five brand new short non-heteronormative plays, plus a brunch buffet of pancakes, eggs, bacon, pastries and fruit!  And our morally reprehensible, fiscally ludicrous OPEN BAR of mimosas and (young)bloody marys!

NARCISSIST  by Alex Borinsky
OKAY by Angela Hanks
THE BOYS BACK AT CAMP by Patrick Link
GRAVIDITY by Tony Meneses
JAZZ VISITS GAY NEW YORK  by Emily Chadick Weiss

Click here for tickets

Click here for more information

Click here for tickets!

Year of the Rooster by Eric Dufault
directed by John Giampietro*
with Denny Bess*+, Delphi Harrington*+, Thomas Lyons*+, Bobby Moreno*+ and Laura Ramadei+
Lighting Design – Wilburn Bonnell, Costume Design – Rachel Guilfoyle, Stage Manager – Kevin Clutz
Rehearsal Stage Manager - Sarah Hoke Brady
Odysseus Rex is a champion. He is his trainer’s greatest hope. He is his opponents’ worst nightmare. One day he will destroy the sun. He is a rooster.
2/3, 4 @ 7pm 2/4 @ 2pm

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In Memory of Julie Simmons, Written by Erica Saleh and Directed by Tamara Fisch

In Memory of Julie Simmons, Written by Erica Saleh and Directed by Tamara Fisch

In Memory of Julie Simmons, Written by Erica Saleh and Directed by Tamara Fisch

Click here to view the rest of the album

Inconvenient Interviews with Risa: The Cast of Hand to God from Risa Sarachan on Vimeo.