Tickets cost $20. Please purchase one ticket per person watching the performance.
To help us meet the costs of this production, please consider adding a small donation to your ticket purchase if you are able to do so.
premieres by Alexis Scheer and Miranda Austen ADEkoje
Join New Repertory Theatre from your favorite device for our new Showstopper Virtual Play Series! Featuring the world premieres from two phenomenal female playwrights of color, this series gives you two live performances for just $20. From the comfort of your home and with optional audience participation, the Showstopper Virtual Play Series is live theatre at its pandemic best.
A Very Herrera Holiday
By Alexis Scheer | Directed by Sarah Shin
Lifestyle blogger Emma Herrera is live on Zoom to walk you through her favorite seasonal drinks and crafts, and perhaps let some relationship frustrations slip—after all, who isn’t looking for a little space from their spouse these days? But there’s a lot of rum in that coquito, and something’s weird about the homemade wrapping paper… A Very Herrera Holiday is a darkly comedic look at an influencer who may be sharing more than festive fun.
[keyp-ing]
By Miranda Austen ADEkoje | Directed by Dawn M. Simmons
Monica Jenae is a freelance commercial producer. In a moment of intense frustration, she does an Instagram live hoping her baby will stay asleep as she waits for her black, male film crew to return from a COVID rapid testing site in the suburbs. As she bleeds her story out and the internet’s comments pour in, the gnarled, twisted strands of racism, privilege and inequity in the noose of the global pandemic tighten, giving her followers a front row seat to the suffocating effects of white supremacy.
Tickets cost $20. Please purchase one ticket per person watching the performance.
To help us meet the costs of this production, please consider adding a small donation to your ticket purchase if you are able to do so.
New Rep will host post-show discussions in a webinar format on the following dates. Join us as we dig deeper into the creation and themes of the show!
Read More About These Discussions
Alexis Scheer (she/her/hers) is a playwright whose plays include Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theater/Second Stage, NYT Critic’s Pick, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, Kilroy’s List, LTC Carnaval of New Latinx Work, Relentless Award semifinalist); Laughs in Spanish (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Kennedy Center’s Harold & Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award, NNPN Showcase), Christina (Roe Green Award), and The Sensational (Actors’ Theatre of Louisville). Her work has been developed at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre Center, Cleveland Playhouse, San Diego REP, and others. Currently commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, and Northern Stage. BFA: The Boston Conservatory. MFA: Boston University. www.alexisscheer.com
Sarah Shin (Director, she/her) is a Korean American actor/director/producer. Recent directing credits include The First Pineapple and Other Folktales, (Central Square Theater), Nothing Rhymes with Juneteenth (Free Soil Arts Collective), Amputees (Boston University), and Asiamnesia (Brandeis University). Assistant Credits include My H8 Letter 2 the Gr8 American Theatre (Assistant Director, Public Theater, Ma-Yi Theatre/AYE DEFY), Endlings (Assistant Director, NYTW), Moby Dick (Choreography Assistant, American Repertory Theater). She is the Co-Founding Artistic Producer of Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston (AATAB). Sarah is also a proud Board Member of StageSource, and a Steering Committee Member of API Arts Network. BFA Theatre Arts, Boston University (@sarsi_bu). sarah-shin.com @shinnysarah
Amanda Figueroa (she/hers) is a first generation actor whose mother was born in Dominican Republic and whose father was born in Puerto Rico. She is grateful to be working with friendly familiar faces and doing so with her first one woman play! Previous credits include “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon Prime Video), Dead House, and The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood (Boston Playwrights’ Theater). Amanda received her BFA in Acting from Boston University on a full, talent-based scholarship. She resides in New York City.
Geena M. Forristall (Production Stage Manager, they/them/theirs) is a producer, stage manager, and artist whose work centers on queerness, inclusive storytelling, and community building. They have stage managed with Central Square Theater, Lyric Stage Company, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Off The Grid Theatre Company, Company One Theatre, and the international tour of Kultar’s Mime, among others. In addition to stage management, they are the Membership Manager at StageSource, and recently (virtually) produced the Tales From Camp Strangewood and Nosferatu, the Vampyr with Sparkhaven Theatre (sparkhaventheatre.com). Geena is a member of Actors Equity Association, and holds a BFA from Hofstra University.
Steven Doucette is a theatre artist local to Boston. He was the Huntington Theatre Company’s 2020 Props Apprentice, holds a BFA in scenic design from Boston University, and has done props for the Wheelock Family Theatre. Aside from BU and its affiliates, he has worked at the Des Moines Metro Opera as well as the Central City Opera; he was even contracted to work for the Tennessee William’s Theatre Festival this summer before the alteration of their season due to the pandemic. Though he works mainly in props and scenery, Steven also sews and writes plays.
Vijay Mathew (Livestream Designer) In the past decade, Vijay has helped to build the organizational capacity for several hundred nonprofit organizations worldwide to livestream their conferences, panel discussions, and performances — with an emphasis on prioritizing accessibility, inclusion, and resource efficiency. In the past year, Vijay supervised the production of more than 400 livestreamed events on behalf of the HowlRound Theatre Commons of which he is Co-founder and Cultural Strategist based at Emerson College in Boston. When using internet technologies, he is passionate about the intersections of accessibility, inclusion, the climate emergency, social change, and a post-carbon future. All of his work in these areas has been informed by a “commons” philosophy and social-justice values. He is a member of Crux cooperative—a visionary studio at the intersection of Black storytelling and immersive technology. Contact: vijay@crux.black, mobile: +1 917 686 3185.
Erica Huang (Sound Designer, she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist working in sound, film, music, and theatre. Her recent theatre credits include My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theatre (Sound Editor/Mixer, presented by Ma-Yi Theatre Company), Songs About Trains (guitar/banjo/percussion/vocals, New Ohio Theatre), and The First Pineapple and Other Folktales (Sound Designer, Central Square Theatre). She has also mixed podcasts for Netflix, Spotify, Southern Living, and American Theatre Magazine; composed music for PRX; sound designed for Constellations Audio, an upcoming Netflix podcast, and a handful of short films; and performed as an actor/musician around NYC.
Miranda Austen ADEkoje is thrilled to be working with Michael Bobbitt and the New Rep team as a writer for the first time. Mrs. ADEkoje attended Brown University where she graduated with a B.A. in literature and cultures in English, after which she trained in London at the Rose Bruford college for Drama and received a Master’s degree with Distinction in Theatre Practices. Her plays include I Am This Place (Revolutionary Spaces), Shelter of Last Resort (Front Porch Arts Collective Summer reading series, The Huntington Theatre Breaking Ground Reading Series, Company One XX PlayLab), 36 Days (Apollinaire Theatre New Play Night reading, Bob Jolly Fellowship Reading Series, Emerson College Student Workshop), The Strongest Shape (Paines Plough Future Perfect Finalist), Reply Please, Requests and Sugar Moth.
Mrs. Adekoje has performed at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and Theatre Royal Stratford as well as being named the Farrago Central London Slam Poet champion. Stateside, Mrs. ADEkoje was a Playwright Fellow at the Tony Award-winning Huntington Theatre and is currently a member of the MUTT play writing collective.
Mrs. Adekoje is an award-winning actress whose credits include Shelia in Lost Tempo (Boston Playwright’s Theatre), Mrs. Mueller in Doubt (Stoneham Theatre) Valerie in the world premiere of Lydia Diamond’s Smart People, for which she won an IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Large Production (The Huntington Theatre), Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet and Silvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona (Actors’ Shakespeare Project), Shylock in Merchant
of Venus (Zero Point Theater), Susan in Race (New Repertory Theatre), and Oya/Shaunta Iyun in The Brother/Sister Plays (IRNE Award for Best Ensemble) and Selector in How We Got On (Elliot Norton Award nomination for Best Ensemble) at Company One.
DAWN M. SIMMONS (Director, she/her/hers) is thrilled to be making her New Repertory Theatre debut. Recent credits include: The Nora Theater/WAM Theatre (Pipeline), Lyric Stage Company (The Wiz, Warrior Class and Saturday Night Sunday Morning), Hibernian Hall (With Glittering Eyes), Actors’ Shakespeare Project (Macbeth), The Front Porch Arts Collective/Greater Boston Stage Company (The Three Musketeers), Greater Boston Stage Company (The Irish and How They Got That Way), SpeakEasy Stage Company (Just Cause (The Boston Project), Men On Boats), Bad Habit Productions (The Real Inspector Hound), Boston Public Works (Hard and Fast: A Love Story), New Exhibition Room (Smile), Fresh Ink Theatre (The Embryos). Dawn is also the Artistic Director of The Front Porch Arts Collective Online: www.frontporcharts.org and Executive Director of StageSource Online: www.stagesource.org
JASMINE M. RUSH (she/her/hers) is a Brooklyn-based, African American actress and writer born and raised in Milwaukee, WI. Classically trained, she has worked nationally on stage, film, and television. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and earned her MFA in Classical Acting from Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy of Classical Acting at George Washington University. She is a proud member of both SAG-AFTRA and Actor’s Equity Association.
OFF-BROADWAY: Joe’s Pub / The Public Theatre: As Much As I Can. BOSTON: Lyric Stage Company of Boston (select): Barbecue , Saturday Night/Sunday Morning; Greater Boston Stage Company/Stoneham Theatre: Laura; Bridge Rep of Boston: The Forgetting Curve.
REGIONAL (select): Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Amen Corner; Sierra Rep Theatre: Intimate Apparel; Philip Glass Days and Nights Festival: MUD; TV: Bull, Blue Bloods, The Sinner, Difficult People. OTHER: Quick Silver Theater Company (NYC): Company Member
Instagram/Twitter: @jasmineMrush WEBSITE: jasmineMrush.com.
Elizabeth Yvette Ramirez (they/she) is delighted to return to New Repertory Theatre after working on multiple special events in the last year, as well as Keyping during the pandemic, and Lonely Planet and Statements After an Arrest… in 2018. While found most often at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Elizabeth is very active throughout New England and has worked with City Ballet of Boston, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Hanover Theater Rep, Speakeasy Stage, Lyric Stage, Front Porch Arts Collective, Central Square Theater, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Greater Boston Stage Company, and Reagle Music Theater. When not backstage, they advise student stage managers at Wellesley College, and work with Flat Earth Theater as company member. Proud elected councilor for Actors’ Equity.
Lauren Corcuera (Props Master) As a theatre artist in the Boston Area, Lauren can be found working an array of positions from wardrobe, to painting, to props. She’s excited to be working with New Rep – particularly excited to further explore the world of digital theatre with them! Currently Lauren is the assistant prop director at Emerson College. Select prop credits include Noire Hamlet (CentAstage), Circle Mirror Transformation (Brandeis University), The Agitators, Barefoot in the Park (Gloucester Stage), Breath and Imagination, Little Shop of Horrors, the Cake (Lyric Stage), Stupid F***ing Bird, and Men on Boats (Emerson Stage).
Brendan F. Doyle is a sound designer, engineer, and artisan working primarily in live performance applications: theatrical sound design, live music, and bespoke audio objects. He holds a MSc in Sound Design from the University of Edinburgh, and a BFA in Theatre Design and Technology from Emerson College. His work has been heard in theatres, concert halls, bars, basements and other venues around the northeast and in Scotland. He is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local USA 829.
Adriano Cabral is a voice and dialect coach, actor, director, and intimacy choreographer. Cabral has coached professionally at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities (CO), the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (MO), and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting (NY). Adriano is a certified teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork and Fitzmaurice Voicework and is a certified Master Reiki Healer and Teacher. They currently serve as Assistant Professor of Voice and Movement at the University of Nevada, Reno where their research focuses on training methods for the LGBTQ+ Identified actor. Cabral is the coauthor of the text Here’s How to Teach Voice and Communication Skills to Transgender Women and is serving this season as the Voice Coach for TEDxCambridge. For more information, please visit www.adriano-cabral.com.
Cori Couture (She/Her/Hers, Audio Describer) has provided audio description for upwards of 70 Boston-area theatre and dance productions, and was recently interviewed on the subject of live-theatre audio description on the Picture This audio description podcast.
For New Rep, she described 1776 and The Charles W. Lenox Experience, as well as many productions for New Rep’s touring company, Classic Rep. She recently described Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s online reading of The Tempest, and is excited to be working with New Rep on these new, Zoom-based productions.
In the early days of WGBH’s Descriptive Video Service (DVS), Cori wrote description for many PBS programs and for movies on home video. More recently, she worked with DVS to narrate description for a slate of Paramount films, many of which are available on Netflix. These include: Rugrats in Paris, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Stardust, and more.
Ruth Celia Kahn (she/her/hers) is passionate about the convergence of the arts and accessibility. In conjunction with The Caption Coalition, Ruth makes theater accessible by captioning productions for patrons who are hard-of-hearing. As an audio describer, she describes the on-stage action live for blind and visually impaired patrons. In the performance realm, Ruth has joyfully sung with The Victorian Carolers, performed in voice recitals with the Sue Ellen Kuzma Voice Studio, served as a church soloist, and participated in many choral concerts. As an actor, Ruth had the honor of performing in a training video for RIDE drivers prepared by the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, the Boston Center for Independent Living, and the MBTA. At Boston Medical Center, she serves as Co-chair of the Patient Family Advisory Council and as the consumer representative on the Accessibility Committee. Ruth is thrilled to be making her captioning debut at New Rep!
Devyn Itula (she/hers) is currently a junior at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. She is pursuing a double major in English and Theatre with a minor in Managing for Social Impact and the Public Good concentrating in Enterprise and Equity. At BC, Devyn sits on the Executive Board of the Boston College Dramatics Society, a student-run theatre producing board as the Production Manager, serves as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Boston College Arts Council, and is a Student Ambassador for the McMullen Arts Museum on campus. In her theatrical studies, Devyn has pursued a deep love of acting, particularly musical theatre, and recently engaged her newfound passion for directing. If Devyn isn’t in the theatre, you’re most likely to find her as a panelist and student tour guide for the Admissions Office or singing with some of her favorite people as a part the University Chorale. In her free time, Devyn loves to travel or snuggle in bed watching Parks and Rec. She is so ecstatic to be a part of the New Rep team this fall!
Abby Lass (she/her/hers) is a Boston-based theatremaker and arts educator. She specializes in dramaturgy, directing, and sound design, and has a special interest in female-centered works and classical adaptations. Previous dramaturgy credits include: Buried Child, Safe Hands: A Musical Workshop, O, Hysteria!, A Fan’s Sermon (Vassar College), Helen (Newton Theatre Company), and #RomeoJuliet (New Rep). Abby has also produced several theatre-adjacent research projects, including “Playing the Man I Am: An Exploration of Gender and Genre in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus” and “Performance and Pedagogy: An Exploration of the Psychological Benefits of Theatre Education for Adolescents.” She recently gave a TEDx talk about the intersection of psychological research and the arts. Abby has just finished her senior year at Vassar College, where she received a double major in Drama and Psychology with a minor in Greek and Roman Studies. She serves as the Director of Education and Outreach at Newton Theatre Company and has taught with Newton Theatre Kids.