Mara Vélez Meléndez she/her is a playwright born and raised in Puerto Rico. She made her Off-Broadway debut in 2022 with Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members, produced by Soho Rep and The Sol Project. Mara was a 2023 MacDowell Fellow, a 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, and a member of Ars Nova’s PlayGroup. She also adapted the Spotify/Gimlet podcast, Case 63, starring Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac. Other plays include This Is Not The Oxcart (Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission Finalist), and Thelma and Louise and the Time Machine (2022 Breaking The Binary Theater Festival). Playwriting M.F.A., Hunter College.

Javier Antonio González is a playwright, director, and filmmaker, and the founding artistic director of Caborca. Some of their authorial work with the company includes Lying Lydia; Distant Star (adapted from Roberto Bolaño’s novel); Zoetrope; Open up, Hadrian; Barceloneta, de noche; FLORIDITA, my Love. Their feature film The Entitlement received the Best Screenplay Award at the Manhattan Film Festival 2018 and a nomination for the Tarkovsky Best Director Award at the BLOW-UP Arthouse International Filmfest 2019. In 2016, they directed their original translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for Teatro en el Parque. Their work has been published in the anthologies Plays and Playwrights 2011 (New York Theatre Experience), Encuentro: Latinx Performance for the New American Theater (Northwestern University Press), and in the journals Revista Conjunto (Casa de las Américas, Havana), Revista Los Bárbaros (Spain), and The Puerto Rico Review.

Patti Panyakaew is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where she designed Fucking A and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her other recent credits include The Addams Family, Hedda Gabler (Bangkok); Heaven Is Something to Keep You Warm, And the Beetle Hums, The Rasa Jar (Yale Cabaret); and Constellations (Yale College). She also works as an architect and a costume illustrator with credits on 3 Summers of Lincoln, The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical (La Jolla Playhouse); and Redwood starring Idina Menzel (Broadway). pattipanyakaew.com

Arthur Wilson is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where credits include Cactus Queen and Uncle Vanya as well as Scenes from Beckett at Area Cooperative Educational Services (ACES). Arthur’s previous Yale Rep credits include Eden (associate costume designer) and falcon girls (assistant costume designer). Other assistant design credits: Candide (Glimmerglass Opera, 2023); Marys Seacole (the Geffen School); Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Yale Rep); Emma: The Musical (Ensemble Theater Company, 2020). Assistant set design: Clueless: The Musical (West End, 2025); Harvey (Laguna Playhouse, 2019); Skylight (Chance Theater, 2019). Arthur holds a double B.A. in music and theater, California State University, Fullerton and is a 2025 Burry Fredrik Design Fellowship Recipient.

Yung-Hung Sung 宋永鴻 he/him Originally from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Yung- Hung Sung is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. His design footprints have been seen around several nations and major theaters in Taiwan, such as National Theater of Taiwan, National Taichung Theater, and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying). Also, Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, Migration Matters Festival (UK); Beijing Dance Festival, Shanghai International Festival of Arts (China); Changmu Performing Arts Festival (Korea); Festival Off Avignon (France). Selected awards include Ten Lines of Poetry to NK, which received Bronze for Professional Lighting Design at the World Stage Design Exhibition 2022 in Calgary, Canada. Recent work includes Rent Free, Cleansed, and Macbeth at the Geffen School. He believes that scenography exists only when it helps tell a story better. yhslightingdesign.com

Joyce Ciesil – Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Joyce is a Jeff Award-nominated sound designer and a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include Uncle Vanya, littleboy/littleman, and Hamlet, Princesa de Dinamarca. This past summer, Joyce was the Resident Sound Designer for the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and a guest faculty member at the National Theater Institute. Selected design credits include Hurricane Diane (Theater Wit), Seven Days at Sea (Light and Sound Productions), and SPAY (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble).

Matthew Armentrout previously worked at Yale Rep on The Inspector, The Far Country, Escaped Alone, Wish You Were Here, The Brightest Thing in the World, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Today is My Birthday, and Manahatta. Broadway: Birthday Candles, Paradise Square, Flying Over Sunset, and Bernhardt/Hamlet. Off-Broadway: Merrily We Roll Along (Roundabout), Othello (Shakespeare in the Park). Regional: Bliss (The 5th Avenue Theatre), Jitney (National Tour), Paradise Square (Berkeley Repertory Theatre).

Sarah Cimino is a makeup artist and designer based in NYC. Broadway design credits include Redwood; Moulin Rouge! The Musical; and Caroline, or Change. Off-Broadway: The Connector (MCC), Nutcracker Rouge, Cocktail Magique, Seven Sins, Queen of Hearts (Company XIV). Regional: Gatsby (A.R.T.). International: Moulin Rouge! The Musical world tour (the Netherlands, West End, Australia, Germany, Korea, Japan). Makeup consultant: Titanic (Encores! NYCC), R.O.S.E., Doppelganger, Hamlet, Oresteia, Upload (Park Avenue Armory); unEarth (NY Philharmonic); Richard III (The Public Theater, SITP); Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova); King Lear (National Black Theatre). Sarah is a member of the Juilliard School’s drama faculty, adjunct faculty at Montclair University, and a guest teaching artist for the Juilliard School’s Dance Division and NYU’s Graduate Acting department.

Doaa Ouf is a third-year M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama. She is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of projection design, directing, and producing for both theater and film. Her work seamlessly integrates her expansive experiences to create compelling, narratively immersive, and deeply resonant storytelling. Select credits include rent free, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fucking A (the Geffen School); We Live in Cairo (New York Theatre Workshop, animator); El Coqui Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom (Long Wharf Theatre, animator); Beinecke Plaza (Yale Cabaret, director); Arlington, The Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner, Dragaret (Yale Cabaret, projection designer); the betrayal project (Yale Summer Cabaret, projection designer); the ripple, the wave that carried me home (Yale Rep, assistant projection designer); Gypsy (Yale Arts Coalition, associate projection designer); Popcorn Falls (Walnut Street Theatre, associate director); The 5 Stages (producer/director); Murder by Midnight (Rutgers, director); The Spitfire Grill (Rutgers, associate director); Summer Play Fest (producer). Doaa is proud to have served as the Artistic Director for Yale Cabaret’s 56th season, Sandbox. Originally from Cairo, Egypt, she is a graduate of Rutgers University and is endlessly grateful to everyone whose love and support have shaped her into who she is today. doaaouf.com

Daria Kerschenbaum  is a second-year M.F.A. candidate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at David Geffen School of Drama. There, she has worked as a production dramaturg on Charity and Ruzante. Additional credits include The Aughts (Yale Cabaret), My Six Therapists (Yale Cabaret/Theater Mu), and The Panic of ‘29 (Less Than Rent/59E59 Theaters). Daria is also a managing editor at Theater magazine, Yale’s journal of theater and performance. In 2021, she was named an artist-in-residence at the Center at West Park, where she produced her play, Virginia/Poe. Daria holds a B.A. in playwriting and English literature from Fordham University.

Abraham E.S. Rebollo-Trujillo s/he is a known commie fag Jew and second-year Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism student developing his practice in Spanish- Greek-English translation. Her dramaturgy is primarily concerned with anti-imperialism and liberation, and as such he has participated in various projects meant to bring attention and aid to Palestinians and others suffering under genocidal regimes: Seven Jewish Children (producer/performer), which raised funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians; Dragaret (performer, as Frida Kahlor), from which s/he donated his tips to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in 2024 and to Advocates for Trans Equality in 2025; and a reading of Twenty One Positions, which raised funds for mutual aid initiatives for Palestinians in Gaza. S/he dedicates this work to dismantling occupation, from Puerto Rico to Palestine.

Kelsey Rainwater is an intimacy and fight director, and actress based out of the ancestral lands of the Quinnipiac people. Kelsey’s work was recently seen in Liberation at Roundabout and Hell’s Kitchen on Broadway. Some of her other credits include Walden at Second Stage; Jordan’s, Sally and Tom, and Manahatta at The Public Theater. Other credits include, Hot Wing King at Hartford Stage, In the Southern Breeze, Measure for Measure, and White Noise by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Oskar Eustis at The Public Theater; Blues for an Alabama Sky with the Keen Company; The Inspector, Wish You Were Here, Between Two Knees, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, and the ripple, the wave that carried me home at Yale Rep. Film and television: Baby Ruby, The Green Veil. She is a Lecturer in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, co-teaches stage combat and intimacy, and is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep.

Michael Rossmy is a Resident Fight and Intimacy Director for Yale Rep, a lecturer in acting at David Geffen School of Drama, and Stage Combat and Intimacy Advisor for Yale College. Broadway credits include A Tale of Two Cities, Cymbeline, and Superior Donuts. Regional theater credits include The Public Theater, Roundabout, The Atlantic, Primary Stages, Westport Country Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, Paper Mill Playhouse, Asolo Rep, The Old Globe, TheaterWorks Hartford, Princeton University, The Acting Company, Soho Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Kansas City Rep, People’s Light & Theatre, and others. He was nominated for a 2017 Drama Desk Award for The Public’s production of Troilus and Cressida and is a 2024 Barrymore Award nominee for Bonez at People’s Light. Upcoming: the Broadway premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purpose directed by Phylicia Rashad.

Cynthia Santos DeCure she/her/ella is an actor, voice and dialect coach. She is an Associate Professor of Acting at David Geffen School of Drama, certified in both Knight-Thompson Speechwork® and as Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Some dialect credits: Wish You Were Here, Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles, Today is My Birthday, El Huracán (Yale Rep); Laughs in Spanish (Hartford Stage, Denver Center); La Tempestad/The Tempest; La Broa’ (Trinity Rep); Espejos/Clean (Milwaukee Rep); Queen of Basel (TheaterWorks Hartford); Cymbeline (New York Classical Theatre); Quixote Nuevo (Portland Center Stage, Seattle Rep., South Coast Rep., Denver Center, Round House Theatre); Scenes with Cranes (REDCAT); In the Heights (Marriott Theatre, Phoenix Theater, Chance Theater); The Long Road Today (South Coast Rep); Orange Is the New Black (Netflix); and The Affair (Showtime). Member of SAG/AFTRA, AEA. Publications: Scenes for Latinx Actors, and Latinx Actor Training.

Calleri Jensen Davis is a creative casting partnership among James Calleri, Erica Jensen, and Paul Davis of over 20 years. They began their collaboration with Yale Rep in 2023 with Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles and the ripple, the wave that carried me home. Broadway credits: The Piano Lesson, Topdog/Underdog, for colored girls…, Thoughts of a Colored Man, Burn This, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Of Mice and Men, Venus in Fur, A Raisin in the Sun, 33 Variations. Television: Love Life, Queens, Dickinson, and The Path, to name a few.

callerijensendavis.com

Stephanie Yankwitt, CSA, tbd casting co. Resident casting office for Soho Rep, where past productions include Give Me Carmelita Tropicana, Public Obscenities, Notes on Killing…, and most recently, The Great Privation. Select upcoming film projects include the feature film Still Life and The Year of the Monarchs (written and directed by Alex Dinelaris, Lexicon). Recent/upcoming theater includes Bus Stop (CSC/NAATCO), Indian Princesses (La Jolla Playhouse), House of India (The Old Globe), and Here There are Blueberries (National tour). tbd casting co. cast the award-winning film In The Summers, written and directed by Alessandra Lacorazza, which won the 2024 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival, and was an official selection of Tribeca, Cartagena, and LA Liff Film Festivals. @tbdcastingco

Aura Michelle is from Alberta, Canada and a graduating M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, where her credits include The Tragedy of Coriolanus, What of the Night?, Pearl’s Beauty Salon, Fucking A, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, and rent free. Other credit Apologiae 4 & 5 (Yale Cabaret); Romeo et Juliette and Kiss Me, Kate (Central City Opera); Shakespeare’s Women, Love and Information, and Dead Man’s Cell Phone (University of Victoria, Phoenix Theatre, her alma mater). Her artistic passion lies in avant-garde, multi-lingual, and politically evocative work. She would like to extend her heartfelt thanks to her teammate Ellora, to the drag and queer communities, the artists of the company for sharing their stories, her friends, colleagues, and especially Mom and Jaden, who inspire her daily with bravery and audacity. Viva Puerto Rico Libre!

Ellora Venkat she/her is a graduating M.F.A. candidate at David Geffen School of Drama, originally from Los Angeles. She obtained her B.A. in theater arts production and design from Pepperdine University. She is ecstatic to be returning to Santa Fe Opera this summer. Recent credits include Kilele, Hamlet: princesa de Dinamarca (the Geffen School); falcon girls, Wish You Were Here, and Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles (Yale Rep); Accommodation (The Odyssey). Viva Puerto Rico y Palestina libre!

Christine Carmela she/her is an actress/writer who is positively thrilled to be returning to the role of Lolita for the third time, a role she originated in the world premiere of the play at Soho Rep. She acquired her B.F.A. in acting from TCU and her M.F.A. in writing for screen from USC. Her work on stage has been seen at Moxie Theatre, Amphibian Stage, Circle Theatre, Uptown Players, and more. Her work as a writer has been seen at Amphibian Stage, and most recently, the Yale Dramatic Association. She’d like to dedicate her performance to her late abuela, for making her the proud Boricua she is today. @ichris.tine

Samora la Perdida she/they (the Receptionist) originated the role of the Receptionist at Soho Rep. She is a Princess Grace Award winner, YoungArts Fellow, and the inaugural recipient of Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Artist Labs Residency. Her musical Spanglish Sh!t, can be heard on Playbill’s Songwriter Series as well as her TEDxTALK: Do Latines Need to Speak Spanish? She starred in Quiara Alegría Hudes’s My Broken Language at Signature Theatre as well as Tina Landau’s A Transparent Musical at the Mark Taper Forum. She will make her feature film debut in Tina Romero’s horror comedy Queens of the Dead. Graduate of LaGuardia HS and Carnegie Mellon. @samoraperdida

Flower Estefana Rios she/her is a Chicana actor, writer, drag performer, musician, and producer originally from Laredo, Texas. Based in Brooklyn, New York, credits include Notes on Killing… (workshop, Sol Project/Soho Rep), Translucent (Boundless Theatre Company), and Julio Ain’t Going Down Like That (INTAR/QCC). Flower’s theater training includes LAB’s Intensive Ensemble, Breaking the Binary’s MT Intensive, and INTAR’s Unit 52. Her writing has been presented with The Playground Experiment and was part of the inaugural The Outrage Queer Writer’s Residency. Flower holds a B.A. in English from Pace University. Thank you to my family, both chosen and biological, for inspiring me to be the most honest version of myself!  flowerestefanarios.com

Yan-Carlos Diaz is a Puerto Rican actor based in NYC who loves prioritizing new works and celebrating Latinx voices on stage. Representando y dedicando todo mi trabajo a mi isla bella Puerto Rico en todo momento. Some favorite Regional credits: Actor #3/Selena Quintanilla in The Invocation of Selena (La Jolla Playhouse), Carla in In The Heights (Rubicon Theatre, Colorado Springs Fine arts), Ancestro en La Familia Addams (Puerto Rico premiere), Houdini in Ragtime (Axelrod Performing Arts Center), Hedwig in Hedwig And the Angry Inch (Henegar Center).