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the artists

 ASSOCIATES

 

 

Jenny Waxman, MANAGING DIRECTOR/FOUNDER 

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Jessica Afton, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS/FACE of Scrap Mettle 

Laura Schatz, MUSIC COORDINATOR, EVENT FACILITATOR

Brian DeCourcy, EVENT FACILITATOR

Elise Sokolow, EVENT FACILITATOR

 

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DIRECTORS

Sarah Stites

Sarah Stites is a New York-based theatre artist and choreographer. She has developed dance and theater pieces with King William Players, 9BC Performance Project, The Habitat, Manhattan Rep, The Chain Theatre, The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Company Cypher, The Pittsburgh Cultural Council, and Wood Street Galleries, among others. Sarah is the founder of Summertime Rewrite New Play Festival, was the Producer of The PRELUDE Festival of Contemporary Performance in 2014, and Co-curates the Play Date @ Pete's Reading Series. Her play Intermeddlers will by published by The Martin E. Segal Theater Center this June. Look for her next directing project, Ice Cream Man, Blue Balls, and The Funny Thing, by Willie Johnson, at The Secret Theater in Long Island City this August. www.sarahstites.com

Sarah Wells

Sarah Wells is a graduate of Indiana University with a dual degree in music and theater. As a casting assistant for Cindy Tolan, she worked on numerous film, television, and theater projects, including The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (B'way), The Effect (Off-B'way), Maggie's Plan (film),Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix), Happyish (Showtime), and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO). Director: Cosmic Ray and the Amazing Chris (New Voices Opera), Art (Indiana University). Assistant Director: The Wild Party (Lee Strasberg Institute), The Art of Bowing, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Indiana University). Producer: Lysistrata (Equal Truth Productions).

Jessica Afton

Jessica Afton is a (proudly) Brooklyn-based actor, director, and writer. She holds a BFA in theatre performance from a tiny school you’ve never heard of, and doesn’t think it matters all that much. What does matter to her is constantly breaking barriers for artists of color and women. She is also the co-founder of Viscera productions, a collaborative production company that focuses on providing challenges to filmmakers and actors that excel in their craft professionally, yet seek to challenge themselves in new and daring ways. Her most proud NY stage credit: The Death of Bessie Smith (Off-Broadway) www.jessicaafton.com

Diane Chen

Diane Chen is a multidisciplinary filmmaker and theater artist. Directing: Exquisite Corpse Company, Scrap Mettle Arts. As an assistant director: The Habitat, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, Vox Theater, Columbia University MFA projects. Favorite acting roles include Kayleen in Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries, Face (a male lead!) in Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist, Thyona in Charles Mee’s Big Love, The Duchess in Duchess of Malfi, and a slew of Shakespearean roles. As writer and actor, her short films have been seen at Sundance and Toronto International Film Festival, and you can catch her webseries Here We Wait later this year, which she created and co-wrote, produced, and starred in with a fellow Dartmouth alum.  In all her work she strives for striking visuals and stylistic movement and framing, and to tell the stories of the othered and underrepresented. Training: LAMDA, Dartmouth College. Much thanks to Jenny Waxman. diane-chen.com

 

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Fife & Drom

Fife & Drom is the musical brainchild of husband and wife team Mark Marshall and Abby Ahmad. Their name pays tribute to fife and drum blues music, a highly influential genre which emerged from Mississippi, the heart of Delta blues, as well as a nod to the dutch word “drom”, meaning “a group moving together with purpose”. 2014 saw the release of their debut album which garnered international praise for its modern take on classic blues.They've been honored by the Independent Music Awards and, more recently, named one of the "Best of NYC's Indie Music Scene" by Arena.com

 

FIFE & DROM

www.fifeanddrom.com

www.abbyahmad.com

Nick Christian MacDonald

Nick Christian MacDonald is an indie folk singer-songwriter living in Brooklyn, NY. His influences include Tom Waits, Sufjan Stevens, and Alexi Murdoch. 

 

'Harlem', a 4 song EP, came out in the summer of 2014 and will be followed up this summer by 'Steeples', a 5 song EP. 

 

His music is available at nickchristianmacdonald.bandcamp.com

Noelle and The Filthy No-No's

Noelle and The Filthy No-No's are a New York based band of sonic force lead by a soothe singing powerhouse. Their sound is a theatrical synthesis of Soul, Jazz and a touch of Rock and Roll as Noelle Tannen's eclectic vocal approach defies any single standard; Ranging from delightfully innocent to aggressively ragged. Her band meets the demands of such acoustic versatility. Delivering a satisfying oomph of harmonic complexity and rhythmic articulation to support the delivery of a neo- sirens song. Exploring the tensions which underly existence, their sound reflects the intensity of living in a modern world. 

 

WEBSITES:

noelleandthefilthynonos.com

facebook.com/noelleandthefilthynonos

Jessica Afton

Jessica Afton is a (proudly) Brooklyn-based actor, director, and writer. She holds a BFA in theatre performance from a tiny school you’ve never heard of, and doesn’t think it matters all that much. What does matter to her is constantly breaking barriers for artists of color and women. She is also the co-founder of Viscera productions, a collaborative production company that focuses on providing challenges to filmmakers and actors that excel in their craft professionally, yet seek to challenge themselves in new and daring ways. Her most proud NY stage credit: The Death of Bessie Smith (Off-Broadway) www.jessicaafton.com

Ryan Blackwell

Ryan works as an actor, writer, director, editor, mograph and vfx artist. Not all at once. Recent acting credits include I Love You... But I Lied on Lifetime, Breathing In the Rain at Columbia, and The Mystic Chords with The Shelter. Thanks to his amazing fiancée for everything. ryanblackwell.com

Diane Chen

Diane Chen is a multidisciplinary filmmaker and theater artist. Directing: Exquisite Corpse Company, Scrap Mettle Arts. As an assistant director: The Habitat, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, Vox Theater, Columbia University MFA projects. Favorite acting roles include Kayleen in Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries, Face (a male lead!) in Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist, Thyona in Charles Mee’s Big Love, The Duchess in Duchess of Malfi, and a slew of Shakespearean roles. As writer and actor, her short films have been seen at Sundance and Toronto International Film Festival, and you can catch her webseries Here We Wait later this year, which she created and co-wrote, produced, and starred in with a fellow Dartmouth alum.  In all her work she strives for striking visuals and stylistic movement and framing, and to tell the stories of the othered and underrepresented. Training: LAMDA, Dartmouth College. Much thanks to Jenny Waxman. diane-chen.com

 

Zachary Clarence

Zachary Clarence is thrilled to participate in the 2016 Emerging Playwrights Program with Scrap Mettle Arts! Recent theatre credits include “Burning” (Theatre at St. Clements and Boston Playwrights’ Theatre),  “Fade to Black!” (Secret Theatre, NY), and “Let’s Play Play” (NY Frigid Theatre Festival). He recently wrote and directed a short film called “The Women’s Bathroom Project,” aimed at contributing

to the fight against HB2 and other discriminatory bills.

Check out www.facebook.com/c16filmproductions and www.zacharyclarence.com for more info!

Ariel Eliaz

Ariel Eliaz's career has spanned from Musicals to Drama and Comedy and from film to tv. He has been featured in numerous roles from Co-stars to Guest Stars to reoccuring roles on a multitude of TV shows spanning top networks like CBS, FOX, NBC, USA Networks, Travel Channel, Oxygen, and more in shows like Blue Bloods, Limitless, and DIG.

Fernando Gonzalez

​Fernando Gonzalez is an actor, writer, science enthusiast, ne'er-do-well, rascal, scamp, and synonym fan. Credits include Big Green Theater at The Bushwick Starr (dir. Jeremy Pickard), The Improbable... John Law (dir. Brad Raimondo), tiger tiger (dir. Jessica Almasy), The Golden Drum Year (dir. Simón Hanukai), Sheeple (NY Fringe, dir. Max Reuben), The Cherry Orchard (dir. Robert Moss), sundry readings at NYTW, and a smattering of web projects. He also translated and adapted Bohemian Lights for Live Source's production at HERE Arts Center. BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch/Playwrights Horizons. Follow him @uniqueid... if you've a strong stomach for puns.

Keenan Jolliff

Keenan Jolliff was born in Corvallis, Oregon, and grew up in Boulder, Colorado. Nature is his savior. He’s a New York based actor, dancer, and poet. His film and television credits include Love the Coopers, The Preppie Connection, Daredevil (Netflix), and Youth in Oregon, which premiered at The TriBeCa Film Festival in April. He recently completed filming The Get Down (Netflix), Call Sheet, and Danny Strong’s directorial debut Rebel in the Rye. A selection of his poetry can be read in a self published book he made under the guise Blood & Inc. with one of his best friends Nick Smerkanich. Keenan is represented by Innovative Artists and The Jeffries Group.

Clare Mahoney

Clare Mahoney is a graduate of NYU Tisch where she studied at the Stella Adler Studio. Credits include roles with the Walnut Street Theatre, People's Light and Theatre Company, The Lantern Theatre, Inis Nua, and The Delaware Shakespeare Festival, among others, as well as multiple film and television projects. She will be receiving her MFA in Acting from Columbia University beginning this September. 

Thea McCartan

Thea McCartan is an actor & voiceover artist working in film, television and theatre. She can next be seen HBO’s upcoming series The Night Of and Season 2 of Hulu’s Difficult People this fall. Recent TV appearances include The Blacklist, Blue Bloods & The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Thea has worked on many award-winning independent films screening at international film festivals such as Sundance, Toronto and Cannes. NY stage appearances include: Push Up (Connelly Theatre); Macbeth (Looking Glass Theatre); Four Dripping Cats (HERE/Lincoln Center Lab); and an American premiere by "Trainspotting" author Irvine Welsh. She currently does improv comedy at UCB and can usually be seen or heard selling yogurt, batteries, juice or somesuch in a tv &/or radio commercial near you. www.theamccartan.com

Morgan McGuire

Morgan is a actor and playwright. Originally hailing from the golden foothills of the Sierra Nevada she now calls the county of Kings home. Recent Stage Credits: Trapper, Triptych, Cul de Sac. Recent Film: Takers. You can see her most recent full length play The Red Room at the TBG Theater this summer. 

Gabe Milligen-Green

Gabe hails from the hills of Northern California and came to the Empire State to attend NYU, where he trained at the Experimental Theater Wing.  Since then Gabe has been performing all over, on the stage, in dance pieces, and in various short films and series. Most recently you may have seen him in Still Life With Apples at the NYC Fringe! Or not.

Neil Tyrone Pritchard

Neil Tyrone Pritchard is a New York Based Actor/Singer/Writer. As an actor, His most recent work has been featured at The Actors Studio,LAByrinth Theater Company, Lincoln Center, Primary Stages,La MaMa and Atlantic Theater Company. His Vocal work has been featured at Rockwood music hall, The National Black Theater, Bowery Poetry Club and The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He is working on an acoustic Jazz Concept Album Tentatively Titled  Ballad of a Sad Young man.. He is currently on staff at the Park avenue Armory where he assists in Bringing Arts Education to public schools throughout the 5 boroughs.

Rebecca Ruttle

Rebecca Ruttle is thrilled to be involved with Scrap Mettle Arts! She is a graduate from Northwestern University (go 'Cats!) with a degree in Vocal Performance and Music Theatre. She was recently seen in the award winning musical, "Going Up". Other favorite credits include The Pajama Game (Babe), Godspell (Joanne), and Rent (Seasons Soloist). Thank you to her amazing family and friends for always being so supportive.

Natalie Walker

Natalie Walker is a performer, writer, and spiritual child of Bernadette Peters & Steve Martin in The Jerk. Future: Britney Spears (1994/2016) and Liam Neeson in Justin Timberlake vs Ryan Gosling at Ars Nova ANT Fest. Past: Bobbi Michele in Last of the Red Hot Lovers at Hangar Theatre (BroadwayWorld Audience Award nominee for Actress in a Play), Chelsea in When I Started Dating Men at Dixon Place, Melanie in Buzz at Invisible Dog and Gemini & Scorpio Loft. Present: crying on the subway. BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch (Stella Adler Studio). natalieleerwalker.com / @nwalks on Twitter.

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PERFORMERS: ACTORS & MUSICIANS

Wickedest Woman by Jessica Bashline

Jessica is a director, playwright, teacher, and the co-founder and Artistic Director of Strange Sun Theater. This year her 10 minute play, Tunnel was produced at Hubbard Hall,upstate NY, and her play, Garden of Memories had a reading at LaMama. She is currently at work on a new play based on The Oresteia.  Selected Directing NYC- (new work): The Improbability of Modern Day Mastodons, Closer Than You Think, The Drowning Girls, Cooking Breakfast for the One I Love, The Alley, Love(d) in 4 shorts, Quilt: A Musical Celebration (reworking). Other Directing Credits: Ragtime, Merrily We Roll Along, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Twelfth Night. www.jessicabashline.com

The Boys Club by Marjorie Bicknell

Marjorie Bicknell is a working playwright, director and actress. She holds a BA in Theatre and English Literature from Mundelein College in Chicago and an MA in Speech with a concentration in Theatre/Oral Interpretation from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Marjorie has studied playwriting at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, where she was a member of the theatre’s Playwrights Circle. Her first full-length play, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, was produced at Theatre Center Chicago by Pary Production Company. The production was the recipient of three Joseph Jefferson Citations. Marjorie is also the author of The Family Room, winner of the 2003 Pennsylvania Playwright Award and The Boys Club, a winner of the 2012 TNT POPS! new play contest. Other full-length plays include: Joint Custody, Queen of New Orleans and Rough Draft. Marjorie is a member of The Dramatists Guild and a founding member of The Playwrights Alliance of Pennsylvania. When not working in theatre, Marjorie is a freelance advertising copywriter and creative consultant. She has won over 40 industry awards for her work on clients such as Bell Atlantic (Verizon), Chase Financial, Jenny Craig MCI and Prudential Insurance.

Pellet and Blue by Thomas Byrne

Having noticed that winter in The People's Republic of Austin (Texas) consisted of many sunny days with temperatures in the 60s and 70s, he decided in 1970 to settle there and thrive. Highlights of his life thus far include: acting professionally for four decades, play directing during the 80s, founding and guiding Theatrical Productions Inc., marrying the nicest woman west of the Mississippi, and writing PELLET AND BLUE. He sustained only one real lowlight­ the sudden death of his beloved wife Jeanette 7.5 years ago. Tom wishes Scrap Mettle and its audiences all the best.

Grievances by Stephen Cedars

Stephen Cedars is a writer, director and teacher originally from south Louisiana.  In New York, his work has been seen through the NY Fringe Festival, Incubator Arts Project, Brick Theatre, the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, chashama, Theatre for the New City, and through several years of community programming which he co-produced in south Williamsburg through Brooklyn Arts Council funding.  Additionally, his plays have been produced throughout the country, and have been published by Original Works and IndieTheatreNow.  Amongst his awards are the Theater Masters Visionary Playwright Award, a Fellowship with the Target Margin Institute for Collaborative Theater Making, a Residency with America-in-Play, and the John Golden Playwriting Prize.  He has taught myriad subjects in the liberal arts to kids grade 2 through 12, and is a creative writing instructor with Writopia Labs.  He earned his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, which he attended as a Rita and Burton Goldberg Fellow.

The Phillie Trilogy by Doug DeVita

A member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Doug wrote the books for two musicals produced by Vital Children’s Theatre in New York: The Tempest (music and lyrics by Brian Allan Hobbs) and As You Like It (music and lyrics by Paul Johnson). His play Just A Rumor (co-written with Gary Lyons) was a Eugene O’Neil semi-finalist, and has had readings at New York’s Abingdon Theatre Company and London’s Menier Chocolate Factory. His play The Fierce Urgency Of Now was produced by Arouet in Seattle, was given a Stage2Page reading at Abingdon Theatre Company, is being published in Adirondack’s Anthology of LGBTQ Plays, and will be included the 2016 Fresh Fruit Festival. Other work includes Goddess of The Hunt; The Gruesomely Merry Adventures of NELL DASH, An Irrepressibly Cheerful Capitalist With A Vengeance; Confessions Of A Serial Egg Donor; Fable (A Fable About A Musical Fable); and The Phillie Trilogy. He also wrote the one-woman show Let Me Entertain You, Again, for actress Lane Bradbury (the original Dainty June in Gypsy, starring Ethel Merman), which has been performed at the Strasberg Institute in Los Angeles, Abingdon’s Sunday Series, The Midtown International Theatre Festival, and Feinstein’s/54 Below.

The Decent to Dali by Jack Feldstein

Jack Feldstein is a playwright and neon animation filmmaker and director. Originally from Australia and a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in playwriting, he now lives in New York City. His playscripts "A House Like Any Other" and "Three Months with Pook" have won prizes in Australia and in Britain with the BBC International Radioplay Writing Competition. Jack's plays have been staged with productions in Australia and New York.  He is an artist member of the Workshop Theater in Midtown 312 W36th Street, where he develops his plays. He now lives in New York City and his philosophy is "search for an interesting life". For more information please see his website at JackFeldstein.com or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Feldstein

Grove Street by Mercedes Lake

Mercedes graduated Cum Laude from Marlboro College in 2012 with a concentration in AMERICAN STUDIES/Theatre. For her senior thesis Mercedes wrote, directed and produced a show of her original plays entitled “The Gun Behind the Door.” Mercedes is set to graduate from Northwestern University’s Writing for the Screen and Stage MFA program in June 2016. Since enrolling in Northwestern, Mercedes’ plays The House Call and After All These Years have received readings at the Chicago Dramatists. Her play Grove Street is a finalist for the Brooklyn based Scrap Mettle reading series. Her original pilot FUN!TV! was a finalist for the Northwestern University sitcom grant. Over the summer Mercedes worked as a marketing intern for the site specific theatre company The Living Room Playmakers for their production of “Under The Table” in collaboration with Cards Against Humanity. In her second year of Northwestern, Mercedes acted as a co-producer of MasterClash, a Northwestern University reading series designed to bridge MFA writers and directors. Her play Taught. will receive its world premiere at The American Theatre for Actors in New York this fall. Mercedes is ecstatic to have Grove Street in Scrap Mettle's 2016 development series.

The Giraffe by Casey Mráz

Casey is a playwright, composer, musician, designer, educator and father from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He studied Dramatic Writing at the University of New Mexico where he earned an M.F.A. in 2009. He also studied playwriting at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic in 2007. He writes plays and screenplays for adults as well as young audiences. His productions include Tinkertown (a musical for Young Audiences; Cardboard Playhouse, 2016), Vampire Hamburger (a musical for Young Audiences; Cardboard Playhouse, 2013), The Phone Call (a ten-minute play, The Vortex Theatre, 2013), Little Red (Tricklock Theatre Co., 2012), The Cotton Plantation (Buran Theatre Co. 2010), Lawrence Welk Visits a Colorado Coal Camp (Studio/Stage, 2010), The Big Come (University of New Mexico, 2009) and Greek Row Tragedy (University of New Mexico, 2009). In 2010 his 10 minute screenplay The Treehouse was produced by the Duke City Shootout Festival and won an award for Best Editing. His publications include Little Red (Indie Theatre Now, NY), The Cotton Plantation (Indie Theatre Now, NY) and Rosario & the Bull (Brooklyn Publishers, Cedar Rapids, IA). He is currently a member and Resident Composer of Buran Theatre Co. (New York, NY).

Cracks by Jacob Rice

Jacob Rice’s plays have been produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville, La MaMa ETC, Nuyorican Poets Café, Soho Playhouse, Atlantic Theatre Stage 2, and others. His play Chemistry won the 2015 Producer's Pick at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and the 2014 Excellence in Playwriting Award at the New York International Fringe Festival. Jacob is the winner of the 2012 Seymour Brick Memorial Prize for Playwriting and a finalist for the 2015 Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center National Playwrights Conference. Education: Columbia University. Jacob is thrilled to be part of Scrap Mettle!

The Fisherman and the Idiot by Gregory Uzelac

Gregory Uzelac is a nomadic writer and satirist born to immigrant parents in New York City and currently based in Brooklyn. Mr. Uzelac graduated from Northwestern University's Creative Writing for the Media Program (CWMP) as has written several scripts for screen and stage as well as numerous essays and short stories. When not writing about (or incessantly discussing) social politics, religion, and adverse media consumption, Mr. Uzelac performs stand-up comedy or plays ABBA: Gold on repeat until the night terrors stop. His misadventures and musings can be followed on Medium, Twitter, and Instagram at @greguzelac.

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TOP TEN FINALISTS

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