Bios for The Happy Family
Jan Jalenak
Playwright
Jan's first play, Constanze and Mozart was developed at the Actors Studio under the direction of Frank Corsaro in the late 80’s and was her first completed full length and her only historical play to date. Her short play, Lucky, directed by Novella Nelson, was in Naked Angels’ Naked Rights festival and in the early 90’s. During that time, getting involved with the Naked Angels cold reading series, Tuesdays@9, Jan began her journey in creating scenes on a weekly basis. These scenes became the foundation of many of her plays. With the guidance and direction of Frank Corsaro and Arthur Penn, Jan developed her one act of Touch My Face, which was produced at the Actors Studio, into a full length play that was produced at The Fourth Street Theatre at New York Theatre Workshop. Jan’s plays have been produced at and with theatres including: Greenwich Street Theatre, HERE, Studio theatre Playwrights Horizons, Fourth Street Theatre, New Georges, Ohio Theatre, Actors Studio, Naked Angels, Ubu Rep, Courtyard Playhouse, Red Earth Ensemble and Santa Fe Performing Arts. Her most recent play, The Happy Family, had a staged reading at the Robert Moss Theater last February and is in process to be produced in New York this year. Jan is a graduate of NYU, studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse, is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio and New Circle Theatre Company.
Development History: scenes from The Happy Family have been read in the Naked Angels cold reading series at Theatre 80. A staged reading was presented at The Robert Moss Theater, February 2017.
Alastair Boag
Director
Alastair is a teacher, actor, writer and director who has lived in NYC for three years having moved here in 2014 from the UK where he ran The Stahl Theatre in Oundle, and previously, Opera East Productions for whom he directed ten operas. He is the Chair of the Arts department at Packer Collegiate Institute and performs and directs in the city when he can.
Matt Biagini
Actor
Matt Biagini is an actor, educator, sometime musician, and native New Yorker. Favorite credits include The Misanthrope (Performance Space 122), The Enlightenment of Mr. Mole (Sheen Center), Cyrano (English/ASL adaptation, workshop-NYTW/Deaf West), Exquisite Potential (ArcLight Theatre), Galileo (Urban Stages), Learning Russian (Yale School of Drama & the Flea Theater), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Lyra Theater), The Christmas Mouse (Access Theater), Rose Mark'd Queen (Yale Summer Cabaret Shakespeare), and How To Bury a Saint (the Schoolhouse Theater). Recent film: "Año Uña (Year of the Nail)" (dir. Jonás Cuarón), "Adrift" (dir. Lúcia Reis). Matt is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. Thank you to Jan, Alastair, and the wonderful, extended Naked Angels family for putting this awesome company together!
McKenna Cox
Actor
McKenna Cox is a NYC based Meisner trained actor currently pursuing work in film, TV, theatre, commercials, and comedy. Her latest commercials have been for clients such as Skiplagged, Comcast, Smilo, and the Cooking Channel's Man, Fire, Food with Roger Mooking. McKenna also performs and films regularly with Room 28 Comedy and Chillville. She is excited to be a part of this incredibly talented cast! www.mckennacox.com
Eric Goss
Actor
Eric Goss can be seen featured in the recent feature film, Toss It. His TV credits include (Bobby): “As The World Turns” (CBS), “What Would You Do?”(ABC), “St. Clair Falls” (CosmoTV). Commercials for Nickelodeon, Mastercard & Google Wallet. Recent NY Theatre credits include O, a Recovering Memory Play (La Mama), Fear Itself (Theatre for the New City) and Ougadougu (Samuel French Off Broadway Theatre Fest). A Manchester, NH native, Eric is presently a Creative Director at Naked Angels and the long-running downtown series “Tuesdays at 9” (Theatre80 St. Marks). He has a BA from AMDA.
Barry Hirsh
Actor
Barry Hirsh is an actor and stand-up comedian who’s work in films include Strange Justice, Hit to Right, Monday Night Mayhem, On Location, The Energy Specialist, Rich and The Fool. New York stage credits include work at The Studio, Theatre, Vital Theatre Company, Reverie Production, Arc Light Theatre and Theatre 62.
Jason Nuzzo
Actor
Jason Nuzzo has performed at the Shakespeare Theatre, Studio Theatre, Shakespeare on the Sound, the Drama League, the Flea, HB Playwrights Theatre, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as well as in film and television and has worked extensively as a voice artist for television and radio. He studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory and at the Atlantic Theater Acting School with David Mamet, William H. Macy, and Felicity Huffman. He holds an MFA from Temple University and a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Jenson Smith
Actor
Jenson Smith is an actor, filmmaker, and cellist*singer-songwriter. Recent credits include The Comedian, Lost Cat Corona, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Louie, The Affair, Too Much Therapy, and the upcoming film Holy New York with Ione Skye and Victor Rasuk. Other theater/music credits include St. Ann’s Warehouse, Naked Angels Theatre Co, Cherry Lane Theatre, EST, CSC, P73, Clubbed Thumb, Bowery Poetry Club, and The Bitter End. She'd like to thank Jan and Naked Angels for creating this beautiful family. www.vimeo.com/jensonsmith
Zoë Van Tieghem
Actor
Zoë Van Tieghem is a graduate of the LaGuardia High School Drama Department and has studied at the New York Conservatory for the Arts, Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. She is the Media Director at Naked Angels and an Associate at The Collective NY. Zoë recently assistant directed The Hungry Ghosts at The Barrow Group in conjunction with Core Artists Ensemble. Film credits include Delinquent, Loosies, Juvie, The Broken Ones, Whisper Me a Lullaby. Off-Broadway and Regional theater: Near Vicksburg (Incubator Arts, NYC Fringe Festival, Phoenix Theater Ensemble, SoHo Rep.), The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois (Dorset Theater Festival), Eleemosynary (DeSotelle Theater). The Uncovering (The Collective) Zoë is currently studying Playwriting at The New School, Eugene Lang.
Brandi Nicole Wilson
Actor
Brandi Nicole Wilson is a stage, film & TV actress who has appeared in Guest- Stars as Press Secretary Kelly Grace on CBS’s NCIS: New Orleans and as Juliette Lewis’s sister on ABC’s Secrets & Lies. She also played Jim Belushi’s wife in SONY Pictures dark comedy Home Sweet Hell opposite Katherine Heigl & appeared on NBC’s Taxi Brooklyn. She co-starred in Bert & Arnie’s Guide to Friendship with a UCB cast including Cristin Milioti & Anna Chlumsky & has performed in the 24-Hour Plays at The Public & Signature Theaters opposite Peter Dinklage & Tim Daly. She has also performed at MTC, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, LABrynth & The Cherry Lane. Brandi’s character voices can be heard in animated cartoons for Disney’s Strawberry Shortcake & Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer. She studies acting with Larry Moss & Patsy Rodenburg, holds a degree from Bennington College & is a consultant with global NGOs sponsoring education for orphans of genocide & combating sex trafficking & violence against women.