EST ANNUAL MEETING 2022 VOTING
Members Council Candidates

FOR A First TERM:

Margot Avery A third generation actress, made her debut at age nine in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on Broadway. Has worked extensively with: Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Directors Co., Riverside Shakespeare, The Jean Cocteau, The Journey Co., The Workshop at the Neighborhood Playhouse, 3Graces Theater Co. International: Edinburgh Fringe 95 & ’96 - collections of short plays by Arlene Hutton; 2001 Arlene Hutton's As It Is In Heaven (nominated for The Stage Award for Ensemble Acting Excellence); 2003 produced and performed David's Balls, a one woman play written by L. B. Kovetz. Other Festivals: FringeNYC (twice), Piccolo Spolettto, Seattle Fringe, Philadelphia Fringe. With 3Graces Theater Co. (charter member): Barbara in the NYC Premier of Nickel & Dimed by Joan Holden based on the bestseller by Barbara Ehrenreich; The Vagrant in L.E. McCollough’s Your Basic American Monday; and most recently, Lily in Robin Rice Lichtig’s The Power of Birds. Other theatre: theAtrainplays (4 times), theAtrain(re)plays, The StatenIslandFerryPlays, The Vagina Monologues (twice), The Portable Dorothy Parker (a one woman play by Annie Lux) in ’08 EST MemberFest. Film: Janice in the short film Janice + Bill written and directed by L.B. Kovetz.  margot.avery@mac.com Margot Avery & Grove Goddess Productions

Bleu Beckford-Burrell (Playwright, Tr@k Grls) is a first-generation Jamaican-American actor/playwright. Born and raised in New York City, she works for non-profit organizations where she teaches acting and writing to teens. Some of her plays include P.S. 365, Lyons Pride, La Race. Her plays have been developed at MacDowell, Page73, The Playwrights Realm, Playwrights Horizon, Space on Ryder Farm, Keen Company, South Coast Rep et cet. M.F.A. Rutgers University BleuBeckford.com

Maggie Bofill (Playwright and Actor) Ms. Bofill is a founding member of LAByrinth Theater Company, and very proud to say a new member of EST. As a writer, her first production was Face Cream, in the 2009 One Act Marathon at EST, directed by Pam Berlin. Her second production was Drawn And Quartered, at INTAR, directed by Lou Moreno (a New York Times Critics pick). Her play, They Killed Boo Boo?,  a murder mystery noir play with music, was part of Labyrinth Barn Series, and given a public reading at INTAR. She has been guest writer at New York Madness, part of The Directors Lab at Actor's Studio, and recently had a couple plays in the One Minute Play festival at INTAR. She has also appeared as an actor in several NYC Theaters, including The Public, EST, Labyrinth Bank St. Theater, INTAR, Clubbed Thumb, Repertorio Español, The Vineyard, are some of many. And Regional Theaters:  Mixed Blood in Minneapolis, Indiana Rep, Gala Hispanic Theater in Washington D.C. among others. TV and film include "Smash," "Law and Order," independent film Cold by Nature.

Christine Farrell is an actress, playwright and director. She was the originator and co-author of Mama Drama (Cleveland Play House, Ensemble Studio Theatre), which is published by Samuel French. Her short plays, The Once Attractive Woman (Faber and Faber)  For the love of ST Teresa were produced in the EST Marathon Series, as well as regional theatres in New Jersey and Florida.   She is a member of  SAG and AEA and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.  She  has been a recipient of an Affiliate Artist Grant from the NEA, an Outstanding Achievement in Theater and Television Award, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship and a Melon Grant.  Her play Our Half of the Sky  developed in the EST Playwrights Unit was chosen by the Great Plains Theatre Conference in 2018.    Christine became a member of EST in the 80’s as an actress , through the inspiration of  EST “in the spirit of a work in progress” is  also a member of EST Playwrights Unit.  She has directed , acted and written plays in the Marathon series.

Jay Patterson Jay Patterson has been a member of EST since 1995 . Over the years he has appeared in Marathon productions as well as  Memberfest, YoungBlood, Bloodworks, First Light, and many other productions.  He has done readings, workshops, and has taken part in the annual madness of " Asking For Trouble " more times than can be counted. Jay has also served on Members Council several stints in the past , and is eagerly looking forward to rejoining. 

Jamie Richards Jamie Richards is Artistic Director of Happy Hour at EST, Producing Artistic Director of the EST/Drew University Oxnam Playwriting Festival, and Producer of EST’s Going to the River. She has served as Artistic Director of the Random Acts Festival at the New School for Drama, Artistic Director of 9th & Madison at Drew University, Director; Lexington Center for the Arts, and Executive Producer of Ensemble Studio Theatre. Directing credits include Light Years at Playwright’s Horizons, Stonewall Jackson’s House (Pulitzer Prize Nomination, Best Play) at the American Place Theater, Fernando at the New Ohio Theater, and Klonsky and Schwartz, A Secret Order, Flight, Heaven Knows and District of Columbia at EST. She has directed many plays for EST’s Marathon of One Act Plays, including plays by Becca Brunstetter, Julia Cho, Cassandra Medley, Billy Aronson, and Cherie Vogelstein. Regional credits include Our Town, Top Girls, Saturday Night Fever, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She has developed plays by Robert Askins, Romulus Linney, and Cori Thomas, among others, and has directed workshops for Williamstown Theater Festival, New York Stage and Film, Primary Stages, and Playwright’s Horizons. She is a member of EST.

Emily Chadick Weiss is a member playwright at The Ensemble Studio Theater and was a member of their playwriting group for emerging writers, Youngblood. She is a four-time Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Science and Technology Grant recipient. John Lithgow and Steven Boyer star in her radio podcast play IF YOU WIN produced by Playing on Air. Her  play, THE FORK, was produced in The Ensemble Studio Theatre's MARATHON and was a New York Times Critic's Pick then got a shout out in The New York Times for stepping up to meet the Trump Era. Emily is a graduate of Northwestern University and a winner of the Young Playwrights Inc. National Playwriting Contest. Her play, THE LAST PARTY, is published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books and GHOSTED is published in The Best Women’s Monologues from New Plays 2020. Emily’s piece on Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, “Women, Where are We Going” is published in The Dramatist Magazine. She has written for the PBS Kids show Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, and created the web series The Share featuring William Jackson Harper. Emily was a speechwriter for the winning Democratic City Council Candidate for Brooklyn’s District 39, Shahana Hanif. More at www.EmilyChadickWeiss.com.

David Zellnik has been a proud member of EST since 1999, was a founding member of Youngblood, and is a longtime member of the Playwrights Unit. He has written 3 one-acts seen in Marathons (Killing Hand, For Elise, and Blue Handed) as well as the mainstage Sloan play Serendib. He’d be honored to serve again on the Members’ Council, as he did in the late 2000s — and is especially eager to add his voice and labor to this theatre’s next chapter.  Beyond EST, his musical Yank! (with composer Joseph Zellnik, and begun in the Playwrights Unit) received 7 Drama Desk nominations, productions London’s West End, Rio de Janeiro, Chicago, Brisbane, and elsewhere.With composer Eric Svejcar, his play with songs The F#@%king Wright Brothers was part of FringeNYC in October 2018 and his episodic podcast musical Loveville High was released in Winter/Spring 2019; it has been downloaded over 80k times. With composer Cecilia Lin, he recently wrote lyrics for The Noble Family, set to open in both Beijing and Shanghai in 2023/24.  David’s plays include: The Letters (Developed @NY Stage and Film; Bridge Theatre) The Udmurts (Semi-finalist O’Neill; Defunkt Theatre) and Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom (New Ensemble, Defunkt Theatre). 

FOR A SECOND TERM:

Bjorn DuPaty has been an actor in NYC for the last 13 years and now serves people as a life coach as well. Bjorn is a member of EST and has been a part of the EST community for over 12 years. He has been a part of many productions on the EST stage and currently holds a position on the member's council. He joined EST around the time that Billy Carden took over as artistic director and is looking forward to helping the theater find new leadership to move the theater forward into the future.

Lynnette R. Freeman is a multidisciplinary artist who hails from East Cleveland, Ohio. Primarily an actress, she considers herself a storyteller who uses her chosen mediums of acting, dance, and writing to reflect and celebrate human experience. She is interested in artists roles as conduits for change through their storytelling, and her aim is to help them tell their stories. She is a graduate of Brown University with a BA in Africana Studies with a focus in Creative Writing and performance, and an MFA in Acting from the Brown/Trinity Rep Conservatory. She has studied and taught Drama and Dance at Edna Manley College of the Visual and performing arts in Jamaica, W.I.  Some previous roles include Ruth in A Raisin In The Sun (Trinity Rep & Arkansas Rep), Lena in Clybourne Park (Dorset Theatre Fest./ Barrington Stage), African Woman in Waking Up (EST: River Crossing Rivers/ One-Act Marathon); Mrs. Muller in Doubt (Music Theatre of Connecticut: CT Theatre Critics Award Nomination: Best Actress), Carmen/Helene in Luz at LaMama Theatre and Reheema Abu-Salaam in the world premiere of In A Daughter's Eyes at InterAct Theatre. She has performed repeatedly with the American Slavery Project's Unheard Voices, as well as with the New Black Fest. She is currently on leave from Jamal Jackson Dance Company, a contemporary African/modern/hip-hop fusion company out of Brooklyn.  She thanks her Family, Friends and ancestors for all their love and support and the EST Company for their consideration!

Rachel Lin is an actor, writer, and producer based in Brooklyn who born in the UK, and raised in New York City’s Chinatown. Most recently, she played Detective Victoria Cho on NBC’s Law & Order: Organized Crime. World premieres include: Women by Chiara Atik, Fat Kids of Fire by Bekah Brunstetter, Ajax (NYT Critics’ Pick), and Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love by Mallery Avidon. She has devised work with: Aaron Landsman, Elastic City, P.S. 122, Target Margin, William Burke, Riot Group, Tiny Little Band, and more. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, and her podcast, Upstage Left, featuring intimate interviews with theater makers and friends, is available wherever podcasts are found. She is currently developing a solo show about her estranged father called: Dear John. BFA, NYU Tisch. TheRachelLin.com.