Love in Hate Nation

Joe Iconis is a musical theater writer, composer and lyricist. He has been nominated for a Tony Award, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Outer Critics’ Circle Awards, and is the recipient of an Ed Kleban Award, a Jonathan Larson Award, a Richard Rodgers Award, and is a former Ars Nova artist-in-residence. Joe’s musical Be More Chill (with Joe Tracz) debuted in March 2019 at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre, following a sold-out Off-Broadway run at The Pershing Square Signature Center and a world premiere at Two River Theater. He is the author of Broadway Bounty Hunter (with Lance Rubin and Jason SweetTooth Williams; Barrington Stage Company and Greenwich House Theater Off-Broadway), Bloodsong of Love (Ars Nova, NAMT), The Black Suits (with Robert Maddock; Center Theater Group, Barrington Stage Company), ReWrite (Urban Stages, Goodspeed Opera House), and Theaterworks USA’s The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks and We the People. Musicals currently in development include The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson for La Jolla Playhouse (with Gregory S. Moss; directed by Christopher Ashley), Punk Rock Girl. Commissions: Two River Theater (with Joe Tracz). His music appeared on season two of NBC’s Smash, with his song “Broadway, Here I Come!” hailed by the New York Times as a new entry in The Great American Songbook. Albums: Be More Chill (OCR), which has been streamed over 350 million times; Things to Ruin (OCR); Two-Player Game, and The Joe Iconis Rock & Roll Jamboree, all available on Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.

John Simpkins (Director) is most excited to again work with Joe Iconis – after directing last season’s World Premiere of Love in Hate Nation at Two River Theater. He also directed Mr. Iconis’ three-time Drama Desk nominated Bloodsong of Love(Ars Nova); The Black Suits(Center Theatre Group – Kirk Douglas Theatre, Barrington Stage Company); ReWrite(Urban Stages, Goodspeed Opera House); The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks(Theaterworks USA – Lucille Lortel);Things to Ruin(which he also co-conceived) and all 12 years of the Joe Iconis Christmas Extravaganza. Other work includes World Premiere plays and musicals at Fredericia Theater in Demark, Human Race Theatre Company, 59E59, Theaterworks Hartford. Regionally, he has directed at Sacramento Music Circus, Lyric Theatre Oklahoma, North Carolina Theatre, John W. Engeman Theatre and Sharon Playhouse (where he also served as Artistic Director). John is Head of Musical Theatre at Penn State University, where he has commissioned and directed Love in Hate Nation, The Last Day(Mike Reid/ Sarah Schlesinger), The Lucky Boy(Kirsten Childs), Dust and Embers(Sam Salmond) and Nostalgia Night(Matthew McCollum/ Sofya Levitsky- Weitz) through a New Musicals Initiative he created and curates. www.john-simpkins.com

Mayte Natalio is from Queens, New York by way of Dominican parents. She studied at the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts and SUNY Purchase (BFA). Mayte began her career as a concert dancer and has performed and toured nationally and internationally with several companies, including the Parsons Dance Company, Camille A. Brown and Dancers, Kyle Abraham’s A.I.M and Darrell Moultrie. She has also performed with pop artists Mylene Farmer and Kanye West as well as in several regional and Off Broadway productions. TV & Film credits include episodes of Neil Patrick Harris’s Best Time Ever, Project Runway All Stars, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live (also assistant choreographer to Camille A. Brown), Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Amazon Prime’s Harlem. Theater choreography credits include The Winter’s Tale (Dallas Theater Center/ Public Works), Runaways (NYU) Into The Woods (Barrington Stage Company), Measure for Measure (The Public Theater/ Mobile Unit 2019), Love in Hate Nation (Two River Theater), Hair (The Old Globe), Kiss My Aztec (Hartford Stage), How To Dance In Ohio ( Syracuse Stage), La Hora Santa written, directed and choreographed by Mayte for Ars Nova’s Vision Residency.  Broadway: Associate Choreographer, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf.

Charlie Rosen is a composer, performer, arranger, orchestrator, music director, and producer. Recent Broadway credits include Be More Chill (Music Sup/Orchestrations), Moulin Rouge (Horn Arrangements), Prince of Broadway (Orchestrations), American Psycho (Assoc MD/Keys), The Visit (Guitar/Zither), Honeymoon in Vegas (Orchestrations), Cyrano de Bergerac (Composer), One Man, Two Guvnors (Music Director, Bass), 13 The Musical (Guitars, Bass, Keys), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Assoc. MD, Bass). Off-Broadway/Regional/Other: Moulin Rouge (Orchestrations), The Colonial Theatre; Bounty Hunter (Orchestrations), Barrington Stage; The Boston Pops (Arranger); A Legendary Romance (MD/Orch.), Williamstown Theatre Festival; Miss You Like Hell (Orchestrations) and misc. Shakespeare in the Park, The Public Theater; Pamela’s First Musical (Orchestrations) and Be More Chill (MD/Orch.), Two River Theater; The Black Suits (MD/Orch.), Center Theatre Group; Unauthorized…Samantha Brown, Goodspeed; Bonfire Night, NYSF; Charlie Rosen’s Broadway Big Band (in residency at 54 Below); Chita Rivera: A Legendary Celebration (Orchestrations), August Wilson. TV/Film: The President Show (Composer), Comedy Central; Maya and Marty (MD/Composer/Arranger), NBC; Best Time Ever w/NPH (Orchestrations and Track Production), NBC; High Maintenance (Addl Music) HBO. ASCAP, Local 802, Equity, Berklee, WME. www.charlierosen.com, @CRosenMusic

Annastasia Victory is an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer, arranger and conductor, known for her ability to proficiently integrate diverse genres of music. Her work with 3 Mo’ Divas, a live PBS special nominated for an NAACP Image Award, earned her the nickname “Diva of the Keys.” Collaborations include: Leslie Odom Jr., Billy Porter, Alex Newell, Santino Fontana, Jake Gyllenhaal, Brooke Shields, Renée Fleming, Tituss Burgess, Deborah Cox, Joshua Bell. Music director, arranger, orchestrator for Cynthia Erivo: In Concert (Live from Lincoln Center). Credits: Broadway revival of Once on This Island (conductor, pianist); Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope at Encores! (MD, arranger); Bubbly Black Girl at Encores! (MD, conductor, pianist); Little Dancer at The Kennedy Center (AMD, piano, accordion); Marie, Dancing Still at 5th Avenue Theatre (AMD, lead pianist); The Wiz at La Jolla Playhouse (AMD, pianist); A Wonderful World at Miami New Drama (MD, arranger). Broadway: Mean Girls, Motown, Newsies, The Color Purple, Violet, An American In Paris, School of Rock, Big Fish, Jersey Boys, Billy Elliot, Nice Work If You Can Get It. Annastasia made her Carnegie Hall debut as a virtuoso pianist at 16 years old, and performed as a soloist with the symphonic orchestra at Merkin Hall as a winner of the Kaufman Concerto Competition. Annastasia’s education includes The Juilliard School of Music, School of Sound and Audio Engineering, and Moscow Music Conservatory of Tchaikovsky pre-school. She is also a recording artist with a solo music available for download on iTunes.www.annastasiavictory.com

Meredith Ries Little Gem (Irish Repertory Theatre), No One Is Forgotten (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), A Hard Time (Pig Iron Theatre Company), Bonnie’s Last Flight (NYTW Next Door), Sweeney Todd (Curtis School of Music), Cute Activist (The Bushwick Starr), Lost Laughs (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), Peer Gynt & the Norwegian Hapa Band (A.R.T./NY, Ma-Yi Theater Company), Heartland (Geva Theatre Center), Heartbreak (The Bushwick Starr), The Temple Bombing (Alliance Theater), The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go! (Ma-Yi Theater Company). Associate Designer: Hadestown (des: Rachel Hauck), The Spongebob Musical (des: David Zinn), The Waverly Gallery (des: David Zinn), Amelie, the Musical (des: David Zinn). Check out my work at www.meredithries.com

KAREN PERRY (Costume Designer) previously designed August Wilson’s King Hedley II, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Jitney, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars and Radio Golf at Two River, as well as Love in Hate Nation, Oo-Bla-Dee, Lives of Reason, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, Guadalupe in the Guest Room, Third and Trouble in Mind. Her most recent credits include Run-Boy-Run & In Old Age (New York Theatre Workshop), Mothers (Playwrights Realm), Jazz (MTC), Lackawanna Blues with Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Mark Taper Forum), Fun Home (Baltimore Center Stage), Steel Magnolias, Hair, Dreamgirls (DTC), Oklahoma! (Houston Ballet at TUTS) and Cinderella Ballet (Eglevsky Ballet Company). Other credits include Danai Gurira’s Familiar (Woolly Mammoth, Guthrie, Seattle Rep), Cabin in the Sky (Encores!), Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky (Pasadena Playhouse), John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, dir. Ethan McSweeny (Arena), Crowns, stop. reset, Trinity River Trilogy by Regina Taylor (Goodman, STC, DTC/Arena), The Trip to Bountiful, Walter Mosley’s The Fall of Heaven, dir. Marion McClinton (Cincinnati Playhouse), The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell McCraney, dirs. Tina Landau and Robert O’Hara (The Public/McCarter), Having Our Say by Emily Mann (McCarter), and Resurrection by Daniel Beaty (Arena). She has designed every play in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle except Fences. Film/TV credits include Gregory Hines Show, Saturday Night Live, and The Brother from Another Planet by director John Sayles. Wine in the Wildness is proudly Karen’s 14th production with TRTC. Currently: Raisin in the Sun @ the Public Theater.

Isabella Byrd Select New York: Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons), The Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (New York Theatre Workshop, Obie Award), “Daddy” A Melodrama (Vineyard/New Group), Continuity (MTC), Plano (Clubbed Thumb), The Hello Girls (Prospect, 59E59), The Slow Room (Annie Dorsen), Sundown Yellow Moon (Ars Nova/WP). Regional: Mlima’s Tale (Westport), The Tale of Despereaux (The Old Globe), Seascape (ACT, San Francisco) Tell Me I’m Not Crazy, Member of the Wedding, and Artney Jackson (Williamstown), Humana Festival 2018, Angels in America co-design (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Upcoming: Shakespeare Theatre Company DC, Hartford Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Alley Theatre. www.isabellabyrd.design

Palmer Hefferan previously designed Cyrano at Two River Theater. Broadway: The Lifespan of a Fact (Studio 54), Grand Horizons (upcoming, Second Stage). Off-Broadway: Marys Seacole (Lincoln Center); Wild Goose Dreams (The Public); The New Englanders, Sugar in Our Wounds, Important Hats… (Manhattan Theatre Club); Seared, BLKS, Collective Rage, Charm, School Girls (MCC Theater); Do You Feel Anger? (Vineyard); Something Clean, Bobbie Clearly (Roundabout); Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA), Pride and Prejudice (Primary Stages); Fabulation, Death of the Last Black Man… (Signature Theatre); Friend Art (Second Stage); Samara, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (Henry Hewes nomination, Soho Rep.); Today Is My Birthday (Henry Hewes Award, Drama Desk nomination, Page 73). Regional: Tell Me I’m Not Crazy, Grand Horizons, Dangerous House, Seared, Romance Novels… (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Girls, American Night (Yale Rep); As You Like It, Henry V, Henry IV, Part One (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); peerless (TBA Award, Marin Theatre); Baby Screams Miracle (Helen Hayes Award), Guards at the Taj, Cherokee (Woolly Mammoth). Palmer received a 2019 Obie Award for “Sustained Excellence in Sound Design.” MFA: Yale School of Drama.

J. Jared Janas (he/him) (Wig, Hair, & Makeup Design) At TRT: Love in Hate Nation and Oo-Bla-Dee. Broadway: Purlie Victorious, Good Night, Oscar, Sweeney Todd…, Ohio State Murders, & Juliet, Kimberly Akimbo, Topdog Underdog, How I Learned to Drive, American Buffalo, Jagged Little Pill, Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, Gettin’ the Band Back Together, Bandstand, Indecent, Sunset Boulevard, The Visit, The Real Thing, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Motown, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, All about Me. Recent Off Broadway: My Broken Language, Between the Lines, Prayer for the French Republic, The Tap Dance Kid. Recent TV: “And Just Like That” and “The Gilded Age.”

Rocío Mendez is an actor/fight director/teacher from Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. Fight/Intimacy Direction credits include: On the Grounds of Belonging (Long Wharf Theatre), Hercules (The Public Theater), The Bandaged Place (Powerhouse Theater), No One Is Forgotten (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), The Secret life of Bees (Atlantic), Leap and the Net Will Appear (New Georges), The Royale (Geva Theatre), Southern Promises, Good Friday (The Flea Theater), Marian, or The True tale of Robin Hood, Hearts Like fists (Flux Theatre Ensemble). Film credits include Bad Writing, Clandestiny, Tied Up, Hurt Fillings. Nominee for two New York Innovative Theatre Awards: Outstanding Choreography and Movement; winner, Artemis Women in Action Film Festival. Rocío is a Team Member of UnkleDave’s Fight-House. www.rociomendez.com

Danielle Gimbal has experience in many facets of the theater industry, including music prep, general and company management, producing, and performance. As a music copyist, Danielle has worked on Broadway as the copyist and music assistant for Be More Chill, Off-Broadway on Broadway Bounty Hunter, and has also worked doing music prep for live concerts and film. Danielle has previously worked for the Tony Awards as the Operations Associate and Ticketing Manager, as well as a General Management Associate for Live Wire Theatrical Management. Thanks to Joe for including me in this crazy and loving family.

GEOFFREY KO (Music Supervisor) is a New York-based music director, orchestrator, and arranger. BROADWAY: The Notebook, Be More Chill. OFF-BROADWAY: Broadway Bounty Hunter, Baby (New Orchestrations, with a new book by Richard Maltby, Jr.), Billy and the Killers, Generation Me, Renascence. SELECT REGIONAL: The Notebook (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Disney’s A Jolly Holiday (Paper Mill), Row (Williamstown), Mystic Pizza (Ogunquit), May We All (Tennessee Performing Arts Center), Punk Rock Girl (The Argyle Theatre), Other World (Bucks County Playhouse), Love in Hate Nation (Two River), The Honeymooners (Paper Mill), and October Sky (Marriott Theater). OTHER WORK: Ride (West End), Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, American Songbook (Lincoln Center), Double Standards (The Town Hall), The Jimmy Awards, Disney on Broadway concerts, and orchestrations for The American Pops Orchestra. Geoffrey is a New Jersey native and graduate of Northwestern University. @geoffreyhko

Telsey + Company Broadway/Tours: West Side Story, Tina, The Sound Inside, Linda Vista, Freestyle Love Supreme, Beetlejuice, Oklahoma! To Kill a Mockingbird, Mean Girls, Frozen, Come from Away, Waitress, Hamilton, Wicked, My Fair Lady, Once on This Island, Hello, Dolly! Anastasia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Off-Broadway: Atlantic Theater Company, Classic Stage Company, MCC Theater, New Group, Park Avenue Armory, Second Stage Theatre. Film: The Kitchen, Mary Poppins Returns, Ben Is Back, The Greatest Showman, Into the Woods, Rachel Getting Married. TV: Tales of the City, Fosse/Verdon, NOS4A2, This Is Us, NCIS: New Orleans, One Day at a Time, Rent, commercials. www.telseyandco.com

NICOLE KUKER (she/her/hers) (STAGE MANAGER) previously served as Assistant Stage Manager on Two River Theater’s production of Love in Hate Nation. She’s grateful to have had the opportunity to continue creating art over the past year, including the streamed virtual productions of Beehive at Paper Mill Playhouse and Tiny Beautiful Things at George Street Playhouse. Broadway: Be More Chill.  Off-Broadway: Be More Chill at Signature Theatre, The 39 Steps at Union Square Theatre, First Love at Cherry Lane Theatre, School for Scandal at Red Bull Theater, The Anthem, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, Dead Dog Park at Bedlam, Drop Dead Perfect at Penguin Rep. Theatre. Regional: Paper Mill Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Two River Theater, Bucks County Playhouse. Film: Livin’ On A Prairie.

Bertie Michaels (Stage Manager) Broadway: Be More Chill, Come From Away, Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, Thérèse Raquin, A Bronx Tale. Off-Broadway/NYC: Encores! Mack & Mabel, Signature Theatre, Lincoln Center/LCT3, 2ndStage. Regional: Buck’s County Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Two River Theater, Dallas Summer Musicals, Shakespeare on the Sound, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of NJ. Other: August Wilson’s American Century Cycle with WNYC. Love and thanks to my family and to Sean.

Rosa Avila was born in Bad Godesberg, Germany and spent her childhood in Mexico and Vienna, Austria. She began playing drums at age 16 and has studied at Facultad de Musica de la Universidad de Veracruz in Xalapa, Veracruz and Escuela Superior de Musica in Mexico City. She was later granted a scholarship from the Mexican Endowment of the Arts for completion of her training at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, California where she studied with such notables as Joe Porcaro, Casey Scheuerell, Ralph Humphrey, and Taka Numazawa. Upon graduation in 1991, Rosa was presented with the award of Outstanding Student of the Year and also received the Human Relations Award, the first time a student won both in the same year. She has performed with artists such as The Lennon Sisters, Ann Margret, Pat Boone, Glen Campbell, Debby Boone, Shari Lewis, Elkie Brooks, Petula Clark. In 1992, she began her association with Andy Williams, with whom she performed until 2009. She plays drums in the all-women jazz group Sheroes with band members Monika Herzig, Jennifer Vincent, Leni Stern, Jamie Baum, and Reut Regev. In 2018 she had the pleasure of having the drum chair at Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway, and she had the drum chair in two amazing Off-Broadway shows this year, Chick Flick and Broadway Bounty Hunter.

Dave Cinquegrana is a New York-based (Jersey born!) guitarist. Broadway: Be More Chill, Frozen (sub), Next to Normal (sub), Once on This Island (sub), Beetlejuice (sub). Regional/Off-Broadway: Desperate Measures (sub), Mad Ones (sub), The Last Goodbye (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Be More Chill (TRT – extension only), Be More Chill (Off-Broadway sub), Next to Normal, Bare, Legally Blonde. Other: 21 Chump Street (BAM/This American Life), The Midtown Men (OBC The Jersey Boys) since 2014, as well as many cabarets/concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Beacon Theatre, The Blue Note, 54 Below, Green Room 42, and just about every bar and venue in NYC, etc. Jazz performance at William Paterson University and City College of New York.

Tessa Dolce is a freelance Multiple Woodwind Specialist based in the New York/ Metropolitan area. Tessa received her MA degree in Multiple Woodwind Performance from Montclair State University in New Jersey. A student of Chad Smith and Harry Searing, Tessa has been a member of the orchestra for the New Jersey State Theater’s Joseph and Spring Lake Theater’s production of The Producers. While at MSU, Tessa was orchestra manager for Greg Dlugos and a pit orchestra member for West Side Story, Carousel, Three Penny Opera, The Producers, Anything Goes, 42nd Street, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Tessa has been a member of the orchestra for productions presented by Vanguard Theater Company, CAST Theater Productions, GB Productions, and The Old Library Theater in Fair Lawn. She also plays with the Mark Heter Concert Band, George Krauss Concert Band, the Garden State Symphonic Band and Central Jersey Wind Ensemble.

Nick Frenay working for the first time with Two River Theater, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Nick Frenay is thrilled to be a part of this production. Having recently relocated from Boston, Nick’s first professional theater credit was playing trumpet/flugabone in the 2016 world premiere of another Joe Iconis show, Broadway Bounty Hunter at Barrington Stage. He also made his Broadway debut earlier this summer subbing on trumpet/flugabone/theremin in Be More Chill at the Lyceum Theatre. When he isn’t juggling instruments in Iconis & Family productions, Nick writes and releases music with his pop duo Nick + Noah and continues to study the noble and enduring tradition of American popular song.

Chris Lough attended The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music and has been a part of more than 150 theatrical productions in the tri-state area. He has toured Europe several times with Evita and Die Schöne und Das Biest, and the United States/Canada with Peter Pan and the first national tour of She Loves Me. Notable appearances include the JVC Jazz Festival and Guimaraes Jazz in Portugal. He has also been featured on various recordings for the Cadence Jazz, Leo, Sony, Nacht, and MSR Classics record labels.