WHY?

Eduardo Machado (Playwright) was born in Cuba and came to the United States when he was nine. He is the author of over forty plays, including, The Cook, Celia and Fidel, Havana is Waiting, The Modern Ladies of Guanabacoa, Fabiola, In the Eye of the Hurricane, Broken Eggs, Once Removed, A Burning Beach, and Stevie Wants to Play the Blues. His plays have been produced at The Arena Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf Theatre, American Place Theatre, The Cherry Lane Theatre, INTAR Theatre, Theater for the New City, and Repertorio Español, among many others. His plays have also been produced in South America and Europe. Mr. Machado's television credits include: Executive Story Editor on Season 2 of the Starz drama Magic City, and Executive Story Editor on two seasons of the HBO television show Hung. He has written pilots for, AMC, Identity (2020); Starz, Havana Red (2018); and Amazon, Tropicana (2017). He wrote and directed the film Exiles in New York, which played at the A.F.I Film Festival, South by South West, The Santa Barbara Film Festival, and The Latin American International Film Festival in Havana, Cuba. Mr. Machado served as the head of playwriting at Columbia University and the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  He is the former Artistic Director of INTAR Theatre in New York City. His plays are published by Samuel French and TCG, Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile’s Hunger for Home a food memoir by Eduardo Machado and Michael Domitrovich, is published by Gotham Press.

Leah C. Gardiner (Director) is an Obie Award-winning director who has directed across the U.S. and internationally, including the premieres of two Pulitzer Prize finalists, Eisa Davis’ Bulrusher and Tanya Barfield’s Blue Door, and countless other new plays and musicals. Recent work includes the revival of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls… (The Public Theater - Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle honoree; five Antonyo Award wins; Drama Desk nomination) and world premiere of Kevin Artigue's Sheepdog at South Coast Rep. She is currently working with New York Times best-selling “Instapoet” Rupi Kaur to adapt her work for the stage. As writer/director: Cultures Collide, a play with music created exclusively for the U.S. Congress, produced by Sony Entertainment. As short film director: The Belle of New Orleans (Alliance Theatre). As film producer: Mother of George starring Danai Gurira (Best Cinematography, Sundance). As actor: playing herself in Ira Sachs’ Little Men opposite Greg Kinnear.

Jennifer Paredes (Veronica) Regional Theatre: Hurricane Diane, American Mariachi, Twelfth Night (Globe for All), and Waking La Llorona (also at La Jolla Playhouse/Without Walls Festival), (Old Globe); El Huracán (Yale Repertory Theatre); The Straights (Access Theater); The Clean House (Portland Stage); Native Gardens (Florida Rep); The River Bride (Stages Repertory Theatre); Manifest Destinitis, Into the Beautiful North, and Rapture, Blister, Burn (San Diego Repertory Theatre); Ballast (Diversionary Theatre); Seven Spots on the Sun (InnerMission Productions); Lydia (ion theatre company); She received her BA from University of San Diego. jenniferparedesactor.com, @_jennparedes on Instagram.

Daniel Dorr (Billy) recently made his NYC theater debut at the Cherry Lane Theater in Murray Mednick’s World Premiere of Mayakovsky and Stalin. He appeared in the West Coast Premiere of Joe Gilford’s Finks, directed by Michael Pressman (Rogue Machine). Other theater credits include: Meghan Brown’s The Kill-or-Dies, Viral by Mac Rogers at Bootleg Theater, Romeo in Romeo & Juliet at the Hollywood Fringe. With the Antaeus Theatre Company in As You Like It, The Crucible, and Macbeth. Film/ TV: Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women, FURY with Brad Pitt, StartUp on Crackle TV, and Counterpart for STARZ. Daniel can be seen playing Mozart in the newly released Bill and Ted Face the Music.

Lindsay Jones (Sound Design) Broadway: Slave Play, The Nap, Bronx Bombers and A Time to Kill. Off-Broadway: Bootycandy (Playwrights Horizons), Mr. Joy (LCT3), Privacy and Dry Powder (Public Theater), and many others. Regional: Guthrie, Hartford Stage, Alliance, Goodman, Old Globe, ACT, Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, and many others. International: Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Canada) and Royal Shakespeare Company (England), and many others. Awards: seven Joseph Jefferson Awards and 24 nominations, two Ovation Awards and three nominations, three Drama Desk Award nominations, three Helen Hayes nominations, two Barrymore nominations, and many others. Film scoring credits include HBO Films’ A Note of Triumph (2006 Academy Award, Best Documentary), and many others. www.lindsayjones.com