In August, nearly 100 auditions were submitted for the THE NEW COLOSSUS audio drama! It was a great privilege to listen to all of those voices, and it’s my hope that future Artist Soapbox projects will provide more opportunities for the multitude of talented voice actors in this region. So stay tuned!

Today, we are thrilled to announce that we have our cast and our team in place! We had our first real rehearsal last night at Trailblazer Studios in Raleigh, NC, and I can say with confidence that this cast is an amazing, hard-working group of artists.

PRESENTING THE NEW COLOSSUS CAST AND CREW:

Cast:

IRINA: Edith Snow*

TRIG: John Jimerson

NINA: Carly P. Jones

KONRAD: Ron McGill

MASHA: Skylar Gudasz*

MEDDIE: Ryan Ladue

PAULINA: Susannah Hough

SORIN: Michael Foley

*Skylar and Edith will also be composing and performing original music as part of their roles. So exciting!!!!!

Team:

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Aurelia Belfield

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Kyma Lassiter

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Barbette Hunter

WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Tamara Kissane

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BIOS

Michael Foley (SORIN) appeared in the staged version of The New Colossus with Little Green Pig as Sorin.  He recently appeared in Norway and Heads Will Roll with LPG and with ShaLeigh Dance Works/Ariail Productions in Bamboo Wind.  Other past favorite roles include those inThree Sisters and Faith Healer for LPG, Life Sucks, The Open House, The Nether, and At the Vanishing Point for Manbites Dog, Julius Caesar for Shakespeare and Originals, A Doll’s House for Burning Coal, and Bent for Raleigh Ensemble Players.  Michael has also directed for LPG, Manbites, and the Carrboro Arts Center, and appeared in independent films, commercials, industrials, and voice-overs.

Skylar Gudasz (MASHA)  is excited to be a part of the distinguished ensemble of The New Colossus.  In the past few years, the Durham, North Carolina-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist has shared stages with the likes of Ray Davies, Cat Power and Sharon Van Etten as part of the Big Star’s Third tribute concerts, opened for Television and toured from the US with Teenage Fanclub to Europe with the Mountain Goats, and appeared as a background vocalist on albums by Superchunk and Hiss Golden Messenger, making her TV debut with the latter on Late Night with Seth Meyers. In 2020, Gudasz is set to release a new album, Cinema, recorded at the famed April Base in Eau Claire, WI, to follow-up her full-length debut Oleander (a 2016 release, produced by Chris Stamey, that prompted The Bitter Southerner to praise her as “the Joni Mitchell the South never had”). Recent acting credits include Macbeth in Macbeth, Sasha in Orlando, Love & Information; Premieres include Sylvia Valentine in the radio drama Occasional Shivers (WNYC), Principal Singer in Lion & the Lamb (Duke Performances), Joan in What Every Girl Should Know (Little Green Pig). 

Susannah Hough (PAULINA)  is an actor, director, producer, voice-over artist, teacher, and Co-Artistic Director of Honest Pint Theatre Co. She hails from Los Angeles but has called the Triangle home for more than 20 years. She is a veteran of numerous stage and film companies here with over 75 productions under her belt. A sampling of her local stage work includes: ANNAPURNA (Emma), THE MYSTERY OF LOVE & SEX (Lucinda), THE HERD (Carol), THE NIGHT ALIVE, THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY, THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE, THE METROMANIACS (Director) for Honest Pint hmlt (HAMLET), RICHIE, THE NEW COLOSSUS (Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern); BODY AWARENESS, SUPERIOR DONUTS (Deep Dish Theater Co.); ALWAYS…PATSY CLINE (REP); OUR TOWN, THE GRAPES OF WRATH (Justice Theater Project); LOST IN YONKERS (Raleigh Little Theatre); DEARLY BELOVED (Theatre in the Park); DADDY’S DYIN’, THERE GOES THE BRIDE (Theatrefest). 

She has appeared in the local short films Righteous (Bombshell Studios), Endings (Turnip Films), and Katie’s Dog (Carbon Footprint), as well as numerous national commercials and industrial videos. Susannah voiced the nutty talk-show host Joan in ASBX’s audio drama, MASTER BUILDER, and is excited and honored to resprise her role of Paulina in THE NEW COLOSSUS. She coaches actors for auditions, self-taping, and scene study. Training: BFA in Drama from the University of California, The American Conservatory Theater. For a complete resume go to: www.susannahhough.com

John Jimmerson (TRIG) spends most of his creative time these days making visual art and is the proud father of a 10-year-old clarinet-playing wonder.  An actor by training, he went to Circle in the Square Theater School in New York, and has worked as an actor and collaborator in New York, regionally, on tour, and locally in the triangle area. Favorite projects include Glass (Tom) and The Wooster Group’s Diary of Anne Frank (Willem Defoe), both produced by Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern; Amadeus (Salieri), produced by Leviathan; the Grapes of Wrath (Al Joad), produced by Arkansas Repertory Theater Company; and Vogue Men’s Fashions (John), produced by Urban Garden Performing Arts. Recent voiceover work includes projects for companies such as IBM, Affordable Dentures, and various North Carolina healthcare organizations. He’s currently developing a new acting technique based on the enneagram with Aric Rohner, has a YouTube channel where he reads books to kids, and is the author of “Get Real”, a picture book adaptation of The Velveteen Rabbit.  Finally, the idea of working on this project makes him want to do cartwheels.

Carly Prentis Jones (NINA), Raleigh native is a theatre artist and vocalist performing on stages throughout the Triangle. She is a versatile performer – spanning opera, musical theatre, classic and contemporary theatre. Some of her most favorite performance credits include: Rachel in The How & The Why (Triangle Women’s Theatre Festival); Camila in In The Heights (North Carolina Theatre); Justice in Rock of Ages and Nettie in Carousel (Theatre Raleigh);  Lady In Green in For Colored Girls…, and Dorothy in The Wiz (Burning Coal Theatre); Colleen/Marge in Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play and Baba Yaga in The Fairytale Live of Russian Girls (Manbites Dog Theatre); Nettie in The Color Purple, Sarah in Ragtime, and Lily in The Secret Garden (Justice Theatre Project).  As a classically trained singer, Carly enjoys performing as an active recitalist and has performed with the North Carolina Opera Company. She attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where she earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, a Bachelor of Arts in Black Music History, and a minor in Arts Management. Carly is excited to join this incredible group of performing artists on this exciting new project! www.carlyprentisjones.com

Ryan Ladue (MEDDIE) has been in local productions with NRACT, Raleigh Little Theatre, Seed Art Share, and others.  Some of his favorite roles have been Boo in “The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” Eddie in “Fool For Love,” Caleb in “The Whipping Man,” and Jim, the gentleman caller, in “The Glass Menagerie.” Ryan currently works in TV/Film and commercials as much as possible and has appeared in a Harris Teeter commercial, an episode of AMC’s Turn: Washington’s Spies, and local feature film Oh Crappy Day. Ryan’s acting training was primarily in Chicago at Columbia College and improv Olympic, but he started working in theatre at a young age in Vermont. Ryan is looking forward to honing his voice and bringing the character of Meddie to life.

Ron Lee McGill (KONRAD) is grateful to be apart of this production. Born & raised in Durham, NC, Ron received his BA in Media Studies from the University of North Carolina and now resides in Charlotte, NC where he is an Actor, Writer, and Graphic Illustrator. Ron’s film credits include appearances on TVOne’s Fatal Attraction and the national advertisement for Meals on Wheels. Ron could last be seen on stage for the Children’s Theater of Charlotte in such productions as Judy Moody and Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt and Last Stop on Market Street. Ron is humbled by the opportunity to be among such great and dedicated talent. 

Edith Snow (IRINA) is an actor/filmmaker/musician. She has performed in the Triangle area for the last two decades, most recently seen in Theatre Raleigh’s JUNK. Last year, she toured with Hidden Voices’ production of To Buy the Sun: The Challenge of Pauli Murray playing over 30 characters in the 2-hour show. She has toured with the Nat’l Theater of the Deaf performing in both spoken English and ASL. Television credits include: Homeland, Turn Washington’s Spies, One Tree Hill. Edith is a freelance audio/video editor who recently completed sound design for Tamara Kissane’s Master Builder audio drama which premiered at The Women’s Theatre Festival in Raleigh. She sings and writes in the lounge-noir band, The Drowning Lovers. edithsnow.com 

Tamara Kissane (WRITER, DIRECTOR) is a playwright, theatre-maker, and podcaster for Artist Soapbox (www.artistsoapbox.org). Locally, she’s worked with Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, Manbites Dog Theater, University Theatre at NC State, The ArtsCenter in Carrboro, Duke Theatre Studies, Transactors Improv, Summer Sisters, Archipelago and both hands theatre company. Tamara is a co-founder of Curious Theatre Collective and leads the Soapbox Audio Collective Writers’ rooms. Her stage-plays, The New Colossus and Master Builder were commissioned and performed by Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern in 2016 & 2018. Tamara’s first audio drama MASTER BUILDER premiered at the Women’s Theatre Festival NC before being released publicly in July 2019.  In 2019, she received grants from the Manbites Dog Theater Fund, the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Durham150, and the Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artist Award (Durham Arts Council).

Aurelia Belfield(she/her/hers) (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) is an aspiring multi-hyphenate drawn to storytelling in all mediums. She’s proud to have appeared as a performer in projects like: I Love My Hair, For Colored Girls, Our Town, Much Ado About Nothing, The Vagina Monologues, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; as a director for Peace Of Clay; as a playwright for A Doll’s House: Remodeled (2018); and as a music supervisor for a variety of films, television series, and commercials. She’s equally as proud to begin her journey into producing and audio dramas with this very exciting work.

Kyma Lassiter (PRODUCTION MANAGER) is a performing artist who currently resides in Raleigh, North Carolina. Some of her favorite acting credits include: Caroline or Change, A Doll’s House: Remodeled (Justice Theater Project); Harriet Tubman, The Maggie Walker Story (Virginia Repertory Theatre); uncletom:deconstructed (The Conciliation Project); A Civil War Christmas (Firehouse Theatre); The Piano Lesson (Cape Fear Regional Theatre); Our Town (Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern) and For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf (SheCow Productions/Burning Coal Theatre). Directorial credits include 12.21.09 (Bull City Black Theatre Festival) and For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf (The Justice Theater Project). Kyma also serves her community as the Constituent Affairs Liaison of the NC African American Heritage Commission. In the spirit of black uplift, Kyma strives to give a voice to those unheard through artistic expression and creation.

Barbette Hunter (PRODUCTION ASSISTANT) is thrilled to be working with Artist Soapbox. This past summer, she served as the stage manager for NRACT’s second highest grossing production, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.  She is currently stage managing The Fall of the House of Usher produced by Cary Applause! Youth Theatre, opening November 1st.  Barbette is also a professional actress. Her stage credits include Born Yesterday, Walking Across Egypt, The Sunshine Boys (NC State TheatreFest;) Metamorphoses, Thyestes, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Raleigh Ensemble Players); 10×10 Annual Play Festival (ArtsCenter); As Bees in Honey Drown, Stonewall Jackson’s House (Actors Comedy Lab); Little Shop of Horrors (Raleigh Little Theatre;) Hair (Theatre in the Park), and Jesus Christ Superstar (North Carolina Theatre).  Some of her favorite roles include Rose in Fences (The Justice Theater Project), Venus Hottentot in Venus (Raleigh Ensemble Players), Magnolia Ellis in The Dance on Widow’s Row (Raleigh Little Theatre), Quilly McGrath in The Old Settler (Raleigh Little Theatre), and Esther in Intimate Apparel (Raleigh Little Theatre).  Her film credits include Union Bound (2016), Dance for One (2011), The Foundations of the Earth (2009), Trouble in the Water (2006) and Southern Belles (2005).  Barbette holds a BA in Speech Communications from NC State University and did graduate work in Acting at UNC Greensboro.  She is a teaching artist for Raleigh Little Theatre and Cary Applause! Youth Theatre. In addition, she serves as a rehearsal assistant and stage manager for Cary Applause! Youth Theatre.  Thanks to Artist Soapbox for this wonderful opportunity. Much love to the production team and the cast! Break a leg!!!

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