Seared

RONALD AUGUSTE (Rodney) graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts before moving to Los Angeles where he won The Best New Talent in Los Angeles Monologue Showcase. His TV credits include: “NCIS: LA,” “Dear White People,” “Station 19,” “Southland,” and “CSI: Miami,” among others. On stage Mr. Auguste has appeared in The Tempest and King Lear at the Classical Studio in NYC and most recently as Darrell Simpson in Meanwhile, Back at the Super Lair as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival in Los Angeles.

ANDREW ELVIS MILLER (Harry) works in Film, TV, Theatre, and Zoom. Theatre Sampler: Blue Man Group, Sir Peter Hall’s Troilus and Cressida (NYC-TFANA). Cymbeline at A Noise Within, Tracy Letts’ Bug with Lost Angels, LA. Other credits sprinkled about include “NCIS’,” “FBI’s,” “CSI’s,” “Law and Orders,” “Halston,” “Dexter,” and “Mozart in The Jungle” among others. This is A. Elvis’ first official SPT-8 contract employment (Thx Jonathan). Forever indebted to the magical and unwavering support of 3 Witches, despite their 2 dogs, he would also like to acknowledge Suze Zachary, the Naked Angels, Tuesdays@9, Gareth Williams with the Detroit Street/Station House motleys, Johnny et al. those at VS., and Jamila Webb’s First Fifteen for exhaling oxygen onto a final, lone, near-extinguished ember these past 3 years. Grateful to be here with all ten digits and no skin grafts (so far). Thank YOU for attending. He hopes you’ll enjoy.

GARY PATNENT (Mike) is an award-winning actor and screenwriter. Select Theatre: Ragtime (3D Theatricals, Ovation Nomination), The Immigrant (Pico Playhouse, Ovation Nomination), Plunge (Son of Semele, Stage Raw Nomination), Our Class (Son of Semele, LA Drama Critics Circle Award), Ragtime (Musical Theatre West), Awake and Sing! (Odyssey Theatre), Soul-Doctor (Lincoln Center). Select Film & TV: “Modern Family,” “Law & Order,” “Burning Dog,” and “Undercovers.” Gary is part of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. As a screenwriter, he has developed multiple projects and is an Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting Finalist. Gary is a proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and the Writers Guild of America West. UNION STRONG!

ANGELA SAUER (Emily) is thrilled to be making her ETC debut! LOS ANGELES: Venus in Fur, How I Learned to Drive (Coachella Valley Rep); Richard III, Measure for Measure (Kingsmen Shakespeare); Figaro (A Noise Within); Lost Tribes (Theatre Dybbuk), Mono/Poly (Tubeman); Venus in Fur (Ophelia’s Jump), Othello (Illyrian Players); Lovecraft: Nightmare Suite (Visceral); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Coeurage); The Art Couple, Skullduggery (Sacred Fools); Timon of Athens (Porters of Hellsgate). REGIONAL: Boeing Boeing, Las Meninas, Bonnie & Clyde — pre-Broadway run (Asolo Rep); Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding (Chicago), The Comedy of Errors (Notre Dame Shakespeare); The Winter’s Tale (NYC Workshop Theatre Co.). TV: “Quantum Leap,” “Sweet Magnolias,” “Jane the Virgin,” “Get Shorty,” “Masters of Sex,” “The Daily Show,” and “Pan Am.” TRAINING: M.F.A. from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. AngelaSauer.com; Instagram @AngelaSauer

BEN SHIPLEY (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be joining ETC for the first time with this production of Seared! National Tour: Disney’s Aladdin, The Prom, Hamilton (Angelica Tour), Warriors Don’t Cry, The Magic School Bus: Lost In The Solar System, and Junie B. Jones. Selected Off-Broadway: The Watering Hole (Signature), 1001 Nights (Atlantic), Don Juan, The Winter’s Tale (The Pearl). Selected Regional: The Wallis, South Coast Rep, New Harmony Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Geffen Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, NYSAF.  Alum of Ithaca College. Love and gratitude to Dominic, their family and friends, and this stellar company of collaborators!

JONATHAN FOX (Director) joined ETC in 2006. His most recent ETC productions were Carmen Jones, American Son, Lillian, Measure for Measure, and Everything is Illuminated. He adapted and directed ETC’s 2017 production of Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives. Other ETC productions include Porgy and Bess, Macbeth, Sweeney Todd, Woyzeck, Amadeus, A Little Night Music, The Liar, Crime and Punishment, and a dozen others. He directed Opera Santa Barbara’s 2019 production of Eugene Onegin and 2014 production of The Consul. He collaborated with the Santa Barbara Symphony on their Shakespeare and Valentine’s Day concerts, and directed their production of The Soldier’s Tale. His ETC productions of American Son, The Invisible Hand, and Bad Jews traveled to Frankfurt. Other European productions include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Streetcar Named Desire, Visiting Mr. Green, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at The English Theatre Frankfurt, and Old Wicked Songs, Crimes of the Heart, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Vienna English Theatre. Before joining ETC, Mr. Fox spent 12 years with Two River Theater Company in New Jersey, which he helped establish in 1994. He served as Managing Director of the company from 1994-99, and subsequently became its Artistic Director. For Two River, he directed their 2016 world premiere production of Lives of Reason. His production of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was profiled in American Theatre Magazine, as was his festival of work by Samuel Beckett. His directing work has been seen in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Cologne, and has received critical acclaim in The New York Times, Variety, the LA Times, and other publications. He received his MFA from Columbia University and is a recipient of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship. He has served as an adjunct faculty member in theater departments at UCSB, Columbia University, University of Utah, and Monmouth University.

THERESA REBECK (Playwright) is a prolific and widely produced playwright, whose work can be seen and read throughout the United States and abroad. Last season, her fourth Broadway play premiered on Broadway, making Rebeck the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time. Other Broadway works include Dead Accounts; Seminar and Mauritius. Other notable NY and regional plays include: Seared (MCC), Downstairs (Primary Stages), The Scene, The Water’s Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels (Second Stage), Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House (Playwrights Horizons), The Understudy (Roundabout), View of the Dome(NYTW), What We’re Up Against (Women’s Project), Omnium Gatherum (Pulitzer Prize finalist). As a director, her work has been seen at The Alley Theatre (Houston), the REP Company (Delaware); Dorset Theatre Festival, the Orchard Project and the Folger Theatre. Major film and television projects include “Trouble,” starring Anjelica Huston, Bill Pullman and David Morse (writer and director), “NYPD Blue,” the NBC series “Smash” (creator), and the upcoming female spy thriller 355 (for Jessica Chastain’s production company). As a novelist, Rebeck’s books include Three Girls and Their Brother and I’m Glad About You. Rebeck is the recipient of the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, a Lilly Award and more.

KRISTAL GEORGOPOULOS (Assistant Stage Manager) is thrilled to be working at Ensemble Theatre Company for her third show this season. She is a stage manager and assistant stage manager whose recent work includes a year at the Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville with shows including Scary Poppins and Holiday Extravaganza, Shrieks (Cedar Point), The Marvelous Wonderettes & Altar Boys (Black Hills Playhouse), and Always Patsy Cline (Firebrand Theatre). She wants to thank her family and friends for traveling all over the country for whatever new adventure awaits.

FRED KINNEY (Scenic Designer) This is Fred’s eleventh production at ETC, previously he designed Sleuth, It’s a Wonderful Life, the Radio Play, The City of Conversation, Amadeus, Looped, The 39 Steps, Loot, In the Continuumand Old Wicked Songs. Other credits include Sight Unseen, Ordinary Days, A Wrinkle in Time, Sunlight, Emperor’s New Clothes and A Year with Frog & Toad (South Coast Repertory).  Peter Pan and Wendy (Prince Music Theater); Intimate Apparel (San Diego Repertory Theatre); End Game & Taming of the Screw (Cutting Ball Theatre, San Francisco); A Picasso (Pittsburgh City Theatre); Serious Money (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Grouch (The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Cats Talk Back, Suburban Stories (NYC Fringe Festival); The Good Daughter, The Adjustment, Color of Flesh, Winterizing a Summer House (New Jersey Repertory Company); Anna Christie, Tennessee Playboy, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Tartuffe, Angel Street, Sleuth, Proof, Noises Off, Steel Magnolias, On Golden Pond & Bus Stop (Triad Stage, North Carolina). Mr. Kinney has also worked on television productions such as Dave Chappelle’s Equanimity & The Bird Revelation, Larry the Cable Guy’s Christmas Special and Jeopardy!. He is recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers and holds an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama.

MICHAEL RATHBUN (Lighting Designer) is excited to be back at ETCSB, where he has designed for The Childrenand American Son.  His designs have graced stages in L.A., San Diego, Chicago, Boston, Bangkok, and Paris, with some notable institutions including San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, and LA Dance Project, among others.  Some notable credits of his include Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir (Associate Lighting Designer), Theatre Y’s devised adaptation of 3 Sisters (Lighting Designer), Ariel Dorfman’s La Muerte y La Doncella (Scenic and Lighting Designer), Benjamin Millepied’s Pillar 7 (Lighting Designer) and Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem (Midwest Premier, Lighting Designer). He also holds an M.F.A. from Trinity College, Dublin’s Lir Academy.  Examples of his work can be found in his online portfolio at mfrdesigns.net.

DIANNE K. GRAEBNER (Costume Design) is a costume designer and University lecturer who is thrilled to be back at ETC for her 23rd production with the company. She is a Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University Alum and earned her M.F.A. in Costume/Set Design. Dianne has designed and created costumes nationwide in theatre, film and television. She has designed Off Broadway, regionally, and internationally for The English Theatre, Frankfurt, Germany and has received numerous nominations and awards for her work. She has originated the costumes for many new works/world premieres and was the Crafts Supervisor, Milliner, and Assistant Costume Designer for Center Theatre Group for many years. She is a member of United Scenic Artists Local-829. www.diannegraebner.com

RANDALL ROBERT TICO (Original Music and Sound Design) marks his 16^th ETC production with Seared as sound design and/or score for ETC. Past shows include Measure for Measure, Everything is Illuminated, The Invisible Hand, and Macbeth, directed by Jonathan Fox, and The Children, Sleuth, The Legend of Georgia McBride, and Baby Doll, directed by Jenny Sullivan. Also with Sullivan are Jackie Unveiled at the Wallis, The Baby Dance: Mixed, and the most recent production of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 at Rubicon Theatre Company. Other recent works include Anna Karenina for DCPA and Astoria Part One & Two for Portland Center Stage (PCS), directed by Chris Coleman. More with Coleman and PCS are Othello, Anna Karenina, Shakespeare’s Amazing Cymbeline, The Imaginary Invalid, and Snow Falling on Cedars. With director Nancy Keystone and Critical Mass Performance Ensemble are After Iphigeniaat the Getty Villa, Apollo at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (Garland Award and an Ovation Award nomination), Ameryka(2016 Ovation nomination), Suzan-Lori Parks’ The America Play (Theatre @ Boston Court), Antigone (Portland Center Stage for which he won a Drammy Award), The Ahkmatova Project, Dr. Faustus, The Rover, and Measure for Measure. Further works include Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, the vocal score for David Hare’s version of Mother Courage, and music and sound design for The Glass Menagerie, all directed by Jessica Kubzansky.

MICHAEL DONOVAN CASTING (Casting Director) is the recipient of 9 Artios awards, presented by the Casting Society of America for Outstanding Achievement in casting.  Richie Ferris has 3 Artios awards.  The company has cast more than 1,000 shows produced at such venues as the Ahmanson Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, the Hollywood Bowl, Pasadena Playhouse, the Kirk Douglas Theatre, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Laguna Playhouse, International City Theatre, Ebony Repertory Theatre, the El Portal Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, the Getty Villa, the Ricardo Montalban Theatre, the Garry Marshall Theatre, Boston Court, the Soraya Performing Arts Center, the 24^thSt. Theatre, San Francisco Symphony, both the Palazzo and Paris in Las Vegas, Arizona Theatre Company, Arkansas Rep, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Rep, Totem Pole Playhouse, and the Troubadour Wembley Park in London – as well as several national tours,  numerous films, TV series and commercials.  Michael is the President of the Board for the Foundation for New American Musicals, and also serves on the board for Camp Bravo.

Ward LeHardy joined ETC as Development Associate in January 2023. His previous experience includes work as Office Administrator at The Classic Theatre of San Antonio. He received a bachelor’s degree with honors in Business and Theatre from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas where he undertook extensive dramaturgy work for the University’s theater department as well as performing in several plays and musicals. Originally from Arlington, Virginia, Ward is excited at the prospect of being bi-coastal. He’s extraordinarily grateful to his parents, brother Will and roommate Leon for their support and encouragement and the entire ETC staff and board for welcoming him with open arms—getting to work at a theater is truly a dream come true! Ward enjoys writing music, hiking, and karaoke.