Past Production
Co-Project with The Artist Co-op
New York Actor Series: Brian Demar Jones + Hamlet
May 23, 2021
New York Actor Series: Brian Demar Jones + Hamlet
May 23, 2021
Production Description:
A bi-monthly play reading series that benefits a different charity each month. In this series, a different New York actor is selected to be “the Player” every two months and that actor chooses everything: the play, the role, the ensemble, and the charity.
Inaugural New York Actor Series Reading:
Sunday, May 23, 2021 at 7:00pm
Player: Brian Demar Jones
Play: Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Charity: Trans Lifeline
A bi-monthly play reading series that benefits a different charity each month. In this series, a different New York actor is selected to be “the Player” every two months and that actor chooses everything: the play, the role, the ensemble, and the charity.
Inaugural New York Actor Series Reading:
Sunday, May 23, 2021 at 7:00pm
Player: Brian Demar Jones
Play: Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Charity: Trans Lifeline
All proceeds go towards the Player's charity of choice.
Suggested donation for entry is $15.
Additional donations for the charity can be contributed at: https://translifeline.org/
Location: streamed online via Zoom
Cast & Creative Team:
Brian Demar Jones* - Hamlet
Jennifer Lanier* - Claudius/Ghost
Amy Gaither Hayes* - Gertrude
Diane Kondrat - Polonius
Alexandra Bonesho* - Horatio
Jac Archer - Laertes
Jo Cutrona - Ophelia
Wren Mitchell - Rosencrantz/Barnardo/Player Queen
Taylor Rasmussen* - Guildenstern/Marcellus/Messenger
Jamie M Rea* - First Player/Player King/Clown
Joseph Lymous - Osricke/Francisco/Priest
Brian Demar Jones* - Director
Diane Kondrat - Assistant Director
Julie Grant - Editor
Andrea Miller - Stage Manager
Amy Gaither Hayes* - Producer and Founding Artistic Director
Jennifer Marinelli - Technical Liaison
*Denotes a member of Actors' Equity.
About Brian (in his own words):
"I am from Upstate, NY originally but moved out West for graduate school and just stayed for about 10 years living in Seattle, Portland, and Idaho. I had such a wonderful time in the Pacific Northwest expanding my artistic palette. I taught, directed, produced, and continued to act. I have worked all over as an actor, including at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Village Theatre, 5th Avenue, Kansas City Rep, and the Portland Playhouse in Oregon. I am an avid tennis player and I am pretty good, if I don’t say so myself. I listen to way too much Musical Theater, mostly Sondheim because he’s literally the Shakespeare of musicals, and jazz. I am inspired by anything that isn’t considered “normal”. I am inspired by the way humans interact with their world and each other. I am inspired by children and how they play, but not sure if I would ever want them.
Among the roles I have played that have had the greatest impact on my life are Elegba in The Brothers Size (which I played twice about 8 or 9 years apart), Darcy in Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice, and Yastreb in Snowstorm. They have each moved me along through different stages of my journey as an artist. Elegba showed me that magic and power are within me but only once I get out of my own way. Darcy taught me how to accept myself… all of myself. Finally, Snowstorm showed that creating a piece with like-minded people can create an unspoken bond that can last a lifetime.
People often ask what I would do if I wasn’t an artist, and I always say anything else; anything else that would make me a crap ton of money so all I’d have to do with the rest of my life would be to create, share, and teach.
My wish is to change the way people see race, gender, and sexuality. I wish to be human and to be celebrated for all the unique ways I can exist. And I want that for you, too."
About Trans Lifeline:
Trans Lifeline is run by and for trans people. Trans Lifeline is a grassroots hotline and microgrants 501(c)(3) non-profit organization offering direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis – for the trans community, by the trans community. Trans Lifeline connects trans people to the community support and resources we need to survive and thrive. We envision a world where trans people have the connection, economic security, and care everyone needs and deserves – free of prisons and police.
Cast & Creative Team:
Brian Demar Jones* - Hamlet
Jennifer Lanier* - Claudius/Ghost
Amy Gaither Hayes* - Gertrude
Diane Kondrat - Polonius
Alexandra Bonesho* - Horatio
Jac Archer - Laertes
Jo Cutrona - Ophelia
Wren Mitchell - Rosencrantz/Barnardo/Player Queen
Taylor Rasmussen* - Guildenstern/Marcellus/Messenger
Jamie M Rea* - First Player/Player King/Clown
Joseph Lymous - Osricke/Francisco/Priest
Brian Demar Jones* - Director
Diane Kondrat - Assistant Director
Julie Grant - Editor
Andrea Miller - Stage Manager
Amy Gaither Hayes* - Producer and Founding Artistic Director
Jennifer Marinelli - Technical Liaison
*Denotes a member of Actors' Equity.
About Brian (in his own words):
"I am from Upstate, NY originally but moved out West for graduate school and just stayed for about 10 years living in Seattle, Portland, and Idaho. I had such a wonderful time in the Pacific Northwest expanding my artistic palette. I taught, directed, produced, and continued to act. I have worked all over as an actor, including at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Village Theatre, 5th Avenue, Kansas City Rep, and the Portland Playhouse in Oregon. I am an avid tennis player and I am pretty good, if I don’t say so myself. I listen to way too much Musical Theater, mostly Sondheim because he’s literally the Shakespeare of musicals, and jazz. I am inspired by anything that isn’t considered “normal”. I am inspired by the way humans interact with their world and each other. I am inspired by children and how they play, but not sure if I would ever want them.
Among the roles I have played that have had the greatest impact on my life are Elegba in The Brothers Size (which I played twice about 8 or 9 years apart), Darcy in Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice, and Yastreb in Snowstorm. They have each moved me along through different stages of my journey as an artist. Elegba showed me that magic and power are within me but only once I get out of my own way. Darcy taught me how to accept myself… all of myself. Finally, Snowstorm showed that creating a piece with like-minded people can create an unspoken bond that can last a lifetime.
People often ask what I would do if I wasn’t an artist, and I always say anything else; anything else that would make me a crap ton of money so all I’d have to do with the rest of my life would be to create, share, and teach.
My wish is to change the way people see race, gender, and sexuality. I wish to be human and to be celebrated for all the unique ways I can exist. And I want that for you, too."
About Trans Lifeline:
Trans Lifeline is run by and for trans people. Trans Lifeline is a grassroots hotline and microgrants 501(c)(3) non-profit organization offering direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis – for the trans community, by the trans community. Trans Lifeline connects trans people to the community support and resources we need to survive and thrive. We envision a world where trans people have the connection, economic security, and care everyone needs and deserves – free of prisons and police.
Cast & Creative Team Bios:
Jennifer Lanier – Claudius/Ghost:
Jennifer Lanier is Co-Artistic Director of Original Practice Shakespeare Festival in Portland Oregon and a professional Shakespeare nerd.
Amy Gaither Hayes – Producer/Gertrude:
Amy Gaither Hayes is a NYC-based actor and vocalist and has worked on stage, film, television, and in the studio all over the country. She is the Artistic Director of Duende Productions and producer of the New York Actor Series. She was most recently seen on CBS’ "Bull." She is a published poet and splits her time between NYC and Vermont and is happiest in her garden.
Diane Kondrat – Assistant Director/Polonius:
Diane Kondrat lives in Portland, Oregon and focuses her energy on stage acting, actor coaching, and sketch comedy. She loves Shakespeare's work. Consider visiting www.dianekondrat.com for more information.
Alexandra Bonesho – Horatio:
Alexandra is a NYC based actor, voice over artist, and teaching artist. Recent NYC stage credits include: ZEN AM (Theater for the New City), ONE CHRISTMAS EVE (FringeNYC), A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Off Broadway-MOD Theatre Company), SPIT (Nylon Fusion Theatre Company), TWELFTH NIGHT (Duende Productions). She has voiced various projects, including national ads and audiobooks with Audible. Alexandra also teaches voice, acting, dance and audition prep to young artists and works as an HR Professional in the tech industry.
Jac Archer - Leartes:
Jac Archer (they/them) is excited to take on the role of Leartes. They've previously taken on the roles of Steele in Piece of My Heart, a witch in Macbeth, and Delia in Bedroom Farce. After taking a break from theatre, Jac is grateful to return to live performance in a new and creative distance medium.
Jo Cutrona – Ophelia:
Jo is a New York City-based actor whose 10+ years of experience includes study at Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA), the Accademia dell'Arte (Arezzo, Italy), Circle in the Square Theater School, and Muhlenberg College, where they received a BA in Theater. They have starred in short films, and have performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Wellfleet Harbors Actors Theater.
Wren Mitchell – Rosencrantz/Barnardo/Player Queen:
Wren is a New York transplant, originally hailing from the West Coast. They've worked with Speakeasy Dollhouse in NYC on Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini, and The Illuminati Ball. Favorite Portland credits include Grey Gold: A New Myth of Persephone and Hades, Richard III, and Br'er Rose (Speculative Drama), Learn To Be Latina (Milagro), Homomentum: The Musical (Pants Off Productions), and The Black Lizard (Imago).
Taylor Rasmussen – Gulidenstern/Marcellus/Messenger:
Taylor Rasmussen is an actor and writer who hails proudly from the suburbs of Chicago. Select credits include: Charlotte’s Web (TheatreWorks International Tour), The Sisters (SoHo Shakespeare Company), Hootenanny Twelfth Night (Corkscrew Theatre Festival), The Stray (Rebel Playhouse), Stupid F*cking Bird, Julius Caesar, The Changeling (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School), As You Like It (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), Cyrano de Bergerac, Urinetown, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Polaroid Stories (Georgetown University). Taylor enjoys writing plays, essays, and short fiction, learning foreign languages, sewing and crafting, dabbling in guitar, and exercising. Taylor is also an enthusiastic TTRPG player, and an avid consumer of fantasy novels and Japanese animation cartoons. IG: @brave_little_taylor
Jamie M Rea – First Player/Player King/Clown:
A renaissance woman of the theatre, Jamie has been exploring this powerful tool for connection and change for over 20 years. She serves as an award-winning Director, Actor, Designer, and Producer, a connoisseur of hats, she could never be satisfied with just one. Because connecting to our shared humanity through self expression is one of the primary strengths of theatre, it is a very fertile ground for the exploration of identities. Favorite gender identity project explorations include Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest (Artists Repertory Theatre), Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth (Shaking the Tree Theatre), and The Alto (all the male roles) in the original musical review The Flip Side. Jamie hopes this experiment serves as a joyful platform for lively personal explorations of the range of possibilities of gender identities and expressions in each of our lives.
Joseph Lymous – Osricke/Francisco/Priest:
New Orleans born but Brooklyn based, Joseph Lymous is a Black, queer, performer and producer. He is the owner of Jomiray Productions, a digital media company which creates comedic joyful content developed for the web and tv. He is currently shopping his puppet/animation/stop motion series, ‘friend’ with Evan Shapiro and can be seen in season two of “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens” on Comedy Central.
Andrea Miller – Stage Manager:
NYC based stage manager. Previous credits include: Mac Beth (Hunter Theatre Project); Twelfth Night (Rude Grooms); Chasing Rainbows: The Road to Oz, Benny & Joon, Half Time, The Outsider, Annie, West Side Story, New Voices (Paper Mill Playhouse); In The Closet (Theatre Row), The Head & The Load, Yerma (Park Avenue Armory); Cyrano (Goodspeed Musicals), The Trial of Donna Caine (George Street Playhouse).
Jennifer Lanier – Claudius/Ghost:
Jennifer Lanier is Co-Artistic Director of Original Practice Shakespeare Festival in Portland Oregon and a professional Shakespeare nerd.
Amy Gaither Hayes – Producer/Gertrude:
Amy Gaither Hayes is a NYC-based actor and vocalist and has worked on stage, film, television, and in the studio all over the country. She is the Artistic Director of Duende Productions and producer of the New York Actor Series. She was most recently seen on CBS’ "Bull." She is a published poet and splits her time between NYC and Vermont and is happiest in her garden.
Diane Kondrat – Assistant Director/Polonius:
Diane Kondrat lives in Portland, Oregon and focuses her energy on stage acting, actor coaching, and sketch comedy. She loves Shakespeare's work. Consider visiting www.dianekondrat.com for more information.
Alexandra Bonesho – Horatio:
Alexandra is a NYC based actor, voice over artist, and teaching artist. Recent NYC stage credits include: ZEN AM (Theater for the New City), ONE CHRISTMAS EVE (FringeNYC), A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Off Broadway-MOD Theatre Company), SPIT (Nylon Fusion Theatre Company), TWELFTH NIGHT (Duende Productions). She has voiced various projects, including national ads and audiobooks with Audible. Alexandra also teaches voice, acting, dance and audition prep to young artists and works as an HR Professional in the tech industry.
Jac Archer - Leartes:
Jac Archer (they/them) is excited to take on the role of Leartes. They've previously taken on the roles of Steele in Piece of My Heart, a witch in Macbeth, and Delia in Bedroom Farce. After taking a break from theatre, Jac is grateful to return to live performance in a new and creative distance medium.
Jo Cutrona – Ophelia:
Jo is a New York City-based actor whose 10+ years of experience includes study at Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA), the Accademia dell'Arte (Arezzo, Italy), Circle in the Square Theater School, and Muhlenberg College, where they received a BA in Theater. They have starred in short films, and have performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Wellfleet Harbors Actors Theater.
Wren Mitchell – Rosencrantz/Barnardo/Player Queen:
Wren is a New York transplant, originally hailing from the West Coast. They've worked with Speakeasy Dollhouse in NYC on Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini, and The Illuminati Ball. Favorite Portland credits include Grey Gold: A New Myth of Persephone and Hades, Richard III, and Br'er Rose (Speculative Drama), Learn To Be Latina (Milagro), Homomentum: The Musical (Pants Off Productions), and The Black Lizard (Imago).
Taylor Rasmussen – Gulidenstern/Marcellus/Messenger:
Taylor Rasmussen is an actor and writer who hails proudly from the suburbs of Chicago. Select credits include: Charlotte’s Web (TheatreWorks International Tour), The Sisters (SoHo Shakespeare Company), Hootenanny Twelfth Night (Corkscrew Theatre Festival), The Stray (Rebel Playhouse), Stupid F*cking Bird, Julius Caesar, The Changeling (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School), As You Like It (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), Cyrano de Bergerac, Urinetown, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Polaroid Stories (Georgetown University). Taylor enjoys writing plays, essays, and short fiction, learning foreign languages, sewing and crafting, dabbling in guitar, and exercising. Taylor is also an enthusiastic TTRPG player, and an avid consumer of fantasy novels and Japanese animation cartoons. IG: @brave_little_taylor
Jamie M Rea – First Player/Player King/Clown:
A renaissance woman of the theatre, Jamie has been exploring this powerful tool for connection and change for over 20 years. She serves as an award-winning Director, Actor, Designer, and Producer, a connoisseur of hats, she could never be satisfied with just one. Because connecting to our shared humanity through self expression is one of the primary strengths of theatre, it is a very fertile ground for the exploration of identities. Favorite gender identity project explorations include Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest (Artists Repertory Theatre), Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth (Shaking the Tree Theatre), and The Alto (all the male roles) in the original musical review The Flip Side. Jamie hopes this experiment serves as a joyful platform for lively personal explorations of the range of possibilities of gender identities and expressions in each of our lives.
Joseph Lymous – Osricke/Francisco/Priest:
New Orleans born but Brooklyn based, Joseph Lymous is a Black, queer, performer and producer. He is the owner of Jomiray Productions, a digital media company which creates comedic joyful content developed for the web and tv. He is currently shopping his puppet/animation/stop motion series, ‘friend’ with Evan Shapiro and can be seen in season two of “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens” on Comedy Central.
Andrea Miller – Stage Manager:
NYC based stage manager. Previous credits include: Mac Beth (Hunter Theatre Project); Twelfth Night (Rude Grooms); Chasing Rainbows: The Road to Oz, Benny & Joon, Half Time, The Outsider, Annie, West Side Story, New Voices (Paper Mill Playhouse); In The Closet (Theatre Row), The Head & The Load, Yerma (Park Avenue Armory); Cyrano (Goodspeed Musicals), The Trial of Donna Caine (George Street Playhouse).
We wish to express our gratitude to the Performers’ Unions:
ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION
AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS
AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS
SAG-AFTRA
Through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear on this program.
ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION
AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS
AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS
SAG-AFTRA
Through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear on this program.