About the Artists:
Or, An Astronaut Play.
Tay Bass (Claire)
Tay Bass is thrilled to be joining the InVersion team here at The Tank! She was last seen in Boo Killebrew's Summer's Soldier at Williamstown Theatre Festival. NY theatre credits include Hype Man: a break beat play (The Flea), 48 Hour Forum (Noor Theatre) and As You Like It (El Barrios Artspace). Regional Credits include: ORLANDO (Williamstown), RENT (Bristol Valley), and Much Ado About Nothing (Texas Shakes). Tay received her BFA in Acting from Long Island University Post '17. www.taybass.com
Caturah Brown (Daria)
Caturah Brown is excited to be bringing the character of Daria to life in Or, An Astronaut Play. She is a New York City based actor/dancer who graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with her BFA in Acting. She then completed her classical training with a focus on Shakespeare in Oxford at the British American Dramatic Academy. Her previous credits include good friday (The Flea Theater), Almost Maimed (The Tank), Marc in Venice (Theatre at St. John’s), ms. estrada (The Flea Theater), and The Reality Plays (St. Clemente’s Theater). IG: @caturahdelores_
Jonathan Cruz (Paul)
Jonathan is thrilled to be a part of this production of Or, An Astronaut Play. Growing up in New York, he attended the Fame school (Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School) where he studied performing arts. His recent credits include The Seance Machine (The Tank) and a television appearance on Evil Lives Here (Investigation Discovery). Jonathan would like to thank his loving family, friends, and the entire Or, An Astronaut Play team. Follow Jonathan @yesiamjonathan.
Harrison Unger (Tom)
Broadway: Dennis (aka Perkins the Butler) in The Play That Goes Wrong. Other NYC appearances at: 59E59, Joe’s Pub, Park Avenue Armory, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, The Wild Project, The Brick Theater, NY International Fringe Fest/Fringe Encore Series. Web includes: I Love You (NPR’s This American Life), web-series Good Cop Great Cop. TV: Hack My Life (truTV). Trained at London’s British American Drama Academy and NYC’s Atlantic Acting School; improv training at UCB and Second City. BA: University of Pennsylvania. He also makes short videos (and more!) under the name Harrington Plunger.
Bailey Costa, Lighting Designer
Bailey Costa is a NYC-based lighting designer and assistant working throughout the Northeast. Currently pursuing her MFA at NYU Tisch, Bailey has worked as lighting supervisor for such companies as Boston Lyric Opera and North Shore Music Theatre, as well as assistant lighting designer for Amélie and The Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway. Most recently she designed lighting for productions with Columbia University, NYU Grad Acting, and Tisch Dance. www.baileycostadesign.com
Barbara Erin Delo, Costume Designer
Barbara Erin Delo is a freelance costumer who is excited to be working on this exciting new work. A New York native, she has previously costume designed for Williamstown Theatre Company, Theatre at St Clements (The Bigot, Off Broadway premier), Martha Graham Dance Company, The Flea, Parsons Dance Company, Megan Williams Dance Projects, Capital Repertory Theatre, Battery Dance Company, NYC Fringe Festival, Chain Theatre Company, Third Rail Productions as well as many other NY and regional theatres. She studied costume design at SUNY Binghamton and NYU Tisch.
Brian Hickey, Sound Designer
Brian Hickey is a Brooklyn based sound designer. He has designed, engineered and assisted at various theaters and venues here on the east coast and in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is very excited to be working with InVersion for the first time, and thrilled to be working alongside Will following their work on Zizi Majid’s Return To Fall. His recent design work includes Novenas For A Lost Hospital (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre) and Esai’s Table (Briggs Opera House, Vermont), which runs Off-Broadway at Cherry Lane Theatre in March 2020. Additionally, Brian is a musician and composer, with a focus on experimental electronic work. He holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Izmir Ickbal, Scenic Designer
Izmir Ickbal is a New York based designer whose credits include A Christmas Carol in Harlem (Classical Theatre of Harlem), La Negra (BRIC), Round Table (Fault Line Theater), Dead Are My People (Noor Theater), Queen (Hot! Festival, Dixon Place), 125th and FREEDOM, Serious Adverse Effects (National Black Theatre), Happy Days starring Diane Wiest (Mark Taper Forum LA, Theater For A New Audience NY), The Late Wedding and 1001 (Teatro LATEA, Columbia Stages). Other credits include Big River (Unquowa Repertory Theater), The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Elm Shakespeare Company); Nanyang: the musical (International Festival of Arts, Singapore); MFA, Yale. More info: izmirickbal.com
Sean Anthony Chia, Casting
Sean Anthony Chia is an Italian-Peruvian fusion from New Jersey with a disruptive method for creative development and casting. His toolkit comes from talent incubation experience at Fox, ICM Partners, Creative Artists Agency, William Morris Endeavor, and Telsey+Co. Recent awards: 2019 National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts and 2019 Hispanic Scholarship Fund. Sean is also a contributing writer for HowlRound Theatre Commons and a core producer for the 2020/2021 Jubilee Festival. Radical diversity, inclusivity, and empathy always. seananthonychia.com
Johnny G. Lloyd, Playwright and InVersion Theatre Producing Director
Johnny G. Lloyd is a New York-based writer, producer, and theatre artist. Recent productions include Patience (workshop productions at Corkscrew Theatre Festival, Columbia University), Round (Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival), It’s a Ghost Story (Homebase Collective), In the Woods We Return (FringeNYC). Upcoming productions include Or, An Astronaut Play. (Co-Production, The Tank and InVersion Theatre). His play Greenness was a semi-finalist for the National Playwrights Conference. Johnny’s work has been seen at Judson Memorial Church, 59E59, TheatreLab (Boca Raton, FL), The Tank, Tiny Rhino, Dixon Place, and more. Johnny is a member of the 2019-2020 Liberation Theatre Company’s Writing Residency. Johnny was a semi-finalist for the 2018 Open-Application Commission at Clubbed Thumb and was the 2017-2018 Shubert Fellow for Playwriting at Columbia University. As the producing director for InVersion Theatre, Johnny has produced plays including Strindberg’s Miss Julie; Shepard/Beckett, a night of one-acts; Mirroring Sky, an App-Play; Gregor, an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, and more. Johnny has been the producing director for InVersion Theatre since 2011, and has produced work with InVersion and independently at Access Theatre, The Drama League, Czech Center New York, and Columbia University. He has dramaturged projects such as The Historical Range of Ursus Americanus by Emma McFarland, and assisted Obie-Award winning director Katie Pearl on Red Hills, with En Garde Arts. He also served as the Associate Director for jazz singer (Abrons Arts Center) created by Joshua William Gelb and Nehemiah Luckett. MFA Candidate in Playwriting at Columbia University. jglloyd.weebly.com.
Rebecca LeVine, Graphics and Prop Design, and InVersion Designer and Dramaturg
Rebecca LeVine has worked with InVersion since 2012, dramaturging Miss Julie, Shepard/Beckett, Owners, Mirroring Sky, Gregor, and Or, An Astronaut Play. She studied English at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also acted, directed, dramaturged, and designed for theater. She holds a Master of Arts in Performance Studies from NYU’s Tisch School, where she wrote about photography and the performance of mourning and theater as labor versus theater as enchantment. Since then, she has worked primarily in publishing, moonlighting as a graphic designer. rebeccalevine.co
Frank Nicholas Poon, Production Manager
Frank Nicholas Poon is a New York-based, American-Asian performer, writer, and producer in both realms of film and theatre with nationally-featured work. He is the Managing Producer of Token Collective, a team of Producers that advocate for diversity in all platforms. He has worked with Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, National Asian Artist Project, En Garde Arts, International WOW Company, Columbia University, Scandinavian American Theater Company, Target Margin Theater, Astoria Performing Arts Center, and more. @franknpoon
William Steinberger, Director and InVersion Theatre Artistic Director
William Steinberger is a director, producer and dramaturg. As director, he has developed new plays at Hartford Stage, the Drama League, Berkshire Theatre Group, the Wilma, 59E59, Judson Church, The Tank, Jewish Plays Project, Czech Center NYC, Passage Theatre, Theatre Horizon, InterAct, FGP, Uglyrhino and several universities. Will is proud co-founder of InVersion Theatre. Astronaut Play is InVersion’s eighth production. Recent InVersion productions include Johnny Lloyd’s In the Woods We Return and Gregor, his own adaptation of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis.” Other favorite productions include Zizi Majid’s Return to Fall (Columbia), Sarah Pappalardo’s Cold (Quince), Hannah Van Sciver’s Marbles (FringeArts) and Fifty Days at Iliam (Greenfield Collective) and David Auburn’s Proof (Neumann University). He has assistant directed for Doug Hughes, Darko Tresnjak, David Auburn, Michael Wilson, Vivienne Benesch, Kip Fagan, Lee Sunday Evans and Robert O’Hara. He is a resident director at the Flea, former MTC Directing Fellow and member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. Will has worked at Hartford Stage, PlayCo, Andy Bragen Theatre Projects, the Wilma and Passage Theatre. His dramaturgy has been featured in the Wall Street Journal. Wsteinberger.com
Sarah Zerod, Stage Manager
Sarah Zerod is a New York-based stage manager. She has previously worked with InVersion Theatre, The Mechanicals, Double Eye Productions, EgoPo Classic Theater, The Greenfield Collective, Orbiter 3 and Enchantment Theatre Co.
The Tank, Co-Producer
The Tank is a non-profit arts presenter and producer. Our mission is to remove economic barriers from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers and experimenting within their art form, and to do so in an environment that is inclusive and accessible. We serve over 2,000 artists every year in over 800 performances, and work across all disciplines, including theater, comedy, dance, film, music, puppetry, and storytelling. The heart of our services is providing free performance space in our two-stage theater complex Manhattan, and we also offer a suite of other services such as free rehearsal space, promotional support, artist fees, and much more. We support work at all phases of development, from readings and residencies to fully produced world premieres. We keep ticket prices affordable and view our work as democratic, opening up both the creation and attendance of the arts to all.