Company member Tina Chilip is in the short film Myself When I Am Real, written and directed by Angeline Gragrasin. Set in the year 2000, a single mother and her teenage daughter struggle to make friends and find belonging at a Filipino Christmas party in suburban Wisconsin. The film won Best Short Narrative Fiction in 2024 at the San Deigo Asian Film Festival. Recent screenings include the Los Angeles Pacific Film Festival, CAAMFest in San Francisco, and upcoming at the Asian American Showcase in Chicago on May 18. Watch the trailer.
After a four year production journey, company member Rutanya Alda has completed her film Land of the Mustaches. The film is an autobiographical story about growing up in the Displaced Persons refugee camps with her mother and grandmother after World War Two left them starving and stateless, as well as her father’s disappearance into Stalin’s notorious Gulag labor camps in Siberia with only what he was wearing the day he was abducted. These two hard paths parallel each other until they finally merge into one story in an ultimate celebration of resilience and human spirit. Land of the Mustaches is premiering in June at AmiCorti Film Festival in Italy and is award-nominated at a dozen others across Europe and the United States so far, including this year’s debut East Village Film Festival. Watch the trailer.
Company member Benja Kay Thomas is in My First Ex-Husband, a play by Joy Behar and directed by Randal Myler. The play is a bold and heartfelt adaptation of true stories. With razor-sharp wit and no filters, Behar explores the messy, hilarious truths of love, sex, and relationships. Whether you’re happily coupled, cautiously committed, or considering changing the locks, relationships are complicated—and universally relatable. A rotating cast changes every four weeks. Benja will be performing through May 18 with Marilu Henner, Julia Sweeney, and Marsha Mason.
Company member Jason Kravits is in the feature film On Swift Horses, directed by Daniel Minahan and written by Bryce Kass, based on the book by Shannon Pufahl. Muriel and her husband Lee are beginning a bright new life in California when he returns from the Korean War. But their newfound stability is upended by the arrival of Lee’s charismatic brother, Julius, a wayward gambler with a secret past. A dangerous love triangle quickly forms. When Julius takes off in search of the young card cheat he’s fallen for, Muriel’s longing for something more propels her into a secret life of her own, gambling on racehorses and exploring a love she never dreamed possible. The film is available in select theaters nationwide. Watch the trailer.
Company member Max Wolkowitz is in The Shark is Broken, a play by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon, directed by Peter Flynn at George Street Playhouse. What happens when three Hollywood legends are stranded in the middle of the ocean? Chaos. As the making of one of the greatest American films hits rough waters, it’s not the shark that’s the problem—it’s the actors themselves. The play brings the legendary actors of Jaws—Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss—face-to-face with their most absurd challenges during the filming of this iconic blockbuster. With a broken shark and tempers running high, this comedy dives into the hilarious behind-the-scenes drama of a movie shoot that goes anything but smoothly. Performances run through May 18 in New Brunswick, NJ. Watch the trailer.
Company member Emma Ramos is in La más fan or “The Biggest Fan,” a feature film written and directed by Maria Torres, now released on Netflix. Disgraced actress Lana Cruz, who has been canceled by Hollywood, heads back to Mexico to work in a film to prove that she’s still a star. But she is not prepared for Polly, her biggest fan and worst nightmare. The cast includes Kate del Castillo, Diana Bovio, and Hugo Catalán.
Acclaimed acting teacher, and former Yale, NYU, and Columbia faculty member Ron Van Lieu returns to The Actors Center in May for a teaching residency, exploring the plays of Anton Chekhov with members of the Resident Company.
Company member Deirdre Lovejoy is in the feature film Lilly, directed by Rachel Feldman and starring Patricia Clarkson, John Benjamin Hickey and Thomas Sadoski, now in theaters nationwide. Based on the remarkable true story of working-class hero Lilly Ledbetter, a hard-working Alabama tire factory supervisor whose singular goal is to lift her family into the middle class. Having grown up in poverty, she endures a work environment plagued by pervasive harassment. As retirement approaches, Lilly discovers that the system has been cheating her, paying her close to half of what the men with the same jobs are earning. Outraged, Lilly fights this injustice to the Supreme Court, the corridors of Congress and eventually The White House all while powerful forces try to shut her down. Watch the trailer.
Company member David Dean Bottrell will be touring his show Teenage Wasteland: Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen this summer. Following the success of his previous show, The Death of Me Yet, David has announced tour dates for his new show for May and June in New York City, Palm Springs, Los Angles, San Francisco, Cotuit, and Nantucket.
Company member Keith Randolph Smith is in Bust, a play written by Zora Howard and directed Lileana Blain-Cruz. Retta and Reggie are enjoying their usual evening on the porch when a longtime neighbor is pulled over by the police just before turning into his driveway. Everything goes as expected—until the unexpected happens. Humor, suspense, and surrealism converge in this gripping interrogation of what it costs to be Black and free. The production premiered earlier this spring at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, before moving to Chicago. Performances run through May 18.