Axial Theater is a professional ensemble based not-for-profit theater company currently in its 24th season. We are dedicated to supporting the professional development of playwrights and actors through presenting new and classic plays as staged workshops, development readings, and full productions. Our affiliated acting program, HM Acting, offers beginner through master acting classes for youth and adults
Creative Team
KATIE BALDWIN ENG (Playwright) writes plays that are like musicals and musicals that are like plays. Her play Nectar was awarded the Irv Zarkower Award for Excellence at Hunter College, the Hudson Valley Writers Center New Play Prize and will be produced November 2017 at Axial Theater in Westchester. Her short play All That Glitters has been made into a film directer by Yaara Sumeruk. Her adaptation of the George Macdonald story The Day Boy and The Night Girl was a finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award and was produced by Indiana University's Premiere Musicals Workshop. Her 3 short musicals, Passage of Dreams, with composer Jeff Tang were developed in Minneapolis at Playlabs and premiered Minneapolis' Theater Latte Da. DISORDER: A Mother-Daughter Vaudeville with composer Gihieh Lee and lyricist Julianne Wick Davis, was part of William Finn's Musical Theater Lab at Barrington Stage Company. She has a BA in religious studies from Brown University and an MFA from NYU's Musical Theater Writing Program.
CHRISTINA ROUSSOS (Director) is originally from the Boston area and currently based in New York. Focusing primarily on new plays her work has been seen at Ensemble Studio Theater, Caps Lock Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Lark, Brooklyn College and Theater Breaking Through Barriers among others. At TBTB she was an Associate Director from 2009 to 2011. She also directs web series (Bodega and The Share – both on YouTube), short films, and music videos. She received her undergraduate degree in Theater Studies from Emerson College, and her MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College where she was a Graduate Teaching Fellow teaching acting and improvisation. Upcoming work includes The Hippos of the Eastern Enclosure by Jen Silverman at Clubbed Thumb.
LAURA CATHERINE BROWN (Graphic design) has worked as a graphic designer since the 1990s, creating editorial and marketing material in print and web, including video and motion graphics. She is also a fiction writer. Her second novel, Made By Mary, is forthcoming with C&R Press in 2018. Her first novel, Quickening, published by Random House, was featured in Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writer series. Laura sees a common thread between these two pursuits, visual and literary: both require practice, passion and openness. She lives in New York City where she’s currently writing a third novel.
ISABELLE COLER (Costume Design) is a New York based costumer and graduate of Bard College. Recent credits include Black Hollow (Columbia University), Detroit (IATI), See You at The Funeral (LaMama), The Subtle Body (59E59), Shitloads of Money (Ensemble Studio Theater), William Shakespeare's Mom (Ars Nova Ant Fest & The Brick), Uncle Vanya (Columbia University), Audiovideo; The Bachelors (Williamstown Theater Festival Workshop), The Unveiling (Dixon Place), Gentlemen of Kentucky (Dixon Place). Webseries: Keep Me Posted (keepmepostedseries.com) and Nannies (in production).
SAM KASETA (Sound Design) is a composer, writer, and sound designer from Hartford, CT. She is currently pursuing her Master of Music in concert composition at NYU Steinhardt, after graduating from Princeton in 2015. You can catch her opera and music theater at The Tank NYC and her singing with choral music collective C4.
DEVORAH KENGMANA (Lighting and Projection Design) is a NYC based Lighting and Projections designer. She holds a S.B. from MIT and an M.F.A. from University of Missouri-Kansas City. She has traveled around the country working with companies such as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Opera, and New York Stage and Film Festival. Recent credits include The Mecca Tales (Voyage Theatre Company), Beyond the Oak Trees (Crossroads Theater Company) and The Convert (Central Square Theater), as well as the upcoming production of A Christmas Carol at Merrimack Repertory Theatre. This is her first production with the Axial Theatre Company.
HEATHER KORNREICH (Set Designer) is returning for her second season with this production. Her first was Axial Theatre's production of Twisted Valentines. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Production/Set Design from the University of Florida where she designed and assisted with many productions such as I Don't Have To Show You No Stinkin' Badges, Lysistrata, Hair, and Cabaret. Heather also received her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Florida and is currently working towards earning her professional architecture license. She lives in Mount Kisco with her husband and three children.
CASEY ALEXANDER SMITH (Props Design) is a resident New Yorker who defines himself as an Artist-Educator-Designer. His work has exhibited socio-political acknowledgment for the marginalized communities in our country. Following his BFA from the School of Visual Arts, he began designing props and scenic pieces and has worked with many theatrical, television, and photography organizations. Among the most memorable of these organizations are Amnesia Wars Productions, MTV Networks, Personal Space Theatrics, All for One Theater, Showtime Networks and The Emerging Artists Theater. When not designing, he works as an arts educator inspiring the creative minds of adolescents in the Tri-State area. While still teaching, he secured a MA in Arts Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. His collection of works can be seen at CSDandCo.com. Thanks and appreciation go to the friends and family who have supported him along the way.
JEFF TANG (Music) is a Brooklyn-based music theatre composer whose work has been seen in New York, Chicago, London, Minneapolis, and La Jolla. Passage of Dreams, written with playwright/lyricist Katie Baldwin Eng, premiered in Minneapolis to rave reviews. Called "ambitious, gorgeous," and "deeply evocative," the piece was hailed as "a triumph of small, intimate, song-based theatre" and named one of the Twin Cities' Top 10 shows of the year in CityPages Magazine. Commissions include Leviathan Lab, NYU Write/Act Festival, Music Institute of Chicago, Theatre Latte Da in Minneapolis, and St. Anne's School in Brooklyn. MFA, NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing. www.jefftang.com