The Women of Padilla

Tony Meneses (Playwright) (he/him) was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and raised in Albuquerque and Dallas. His plays include Guadalupe in the Guest Room, twenty50, The Hombres, and El Borracho. He is an alum of the Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, Ars Nova Play Group, Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at Ucross Foundation, The Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship, and Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood; his work has been previously developed at the Lark Playwrights’ Week, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, The Denver Center’s Colorado New Play Summit, The Old Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival, and South Coast Repertory’s Pacific Playwrights Festival and New SCRipt Series. He is a two-time recipient of The Kennedy Center Latinx Playwriting Award, is published by Dramatists Play Service and Theatrical Rights Worldwide, and has been previously commissioned by Denver Center, Two River Theater, South Coast Rep, and The Juilliard School. He is currently under commission from The Old Globe. Education: The University of Texas at Austin, Iowa Playwrights Workshop, Juilliard.

Ken Rus Schmoll directed Madeleine George’s Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England and The Women of Padilla by Tony Meneses at Two River Theater. Recent credits include Annie Baker’s John at the American Conservatory Theater, a workshop of Anne Washburn’s 12-hour play The Octavia at the University of Washington School of Drama, MJ Kaufman’s Sagittarius Ponderosa for the National Asian American Theatre Company, Lucas Hnath’s Hillary and Clinton at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, and Anne Washburn’s Antlia Pneumatica at Playwrights Horizons. He is a usual suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a co-mentor of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship, a three-time Sundance Theatre Institute alum, a former co-chair of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and the recipient of two Obie Awards.

Arnulfo Maldonado is a New York City-based set and costume designer. Previously at Two River: The Women of Padilla by Tony Meneses and Madeleine George’s Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England, both with director Ken Rus Schmoll. Notable New York credits include: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play and Charm (MCC Theater); Bull in a China Shop (Lincoln Theater Center); Twelfth Night (The Public); Kingdom Come (Roundabout); Duat and generations (Soho Rep); Caught (Play Co); Men on Boats, Iowa (Playwrights Horizons); Iphigenia in Aulis (CSC). Regional: Berkeley Rep, Center Stage, Central City Opera, Guthrie Theater, Old Globe, Olney Theatre Center, Opera Theatre of St Louis, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Tour: Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower (Under the Radar Festival, NYUAD Arts Center, Abu Dhabi US Tour); The Magnetic Fields: 50 Song Memoir (BAM Next Wave/International tour). Mr. Maldonado is a Clubbed Thumb Affiliated Artist, a recipient of a Princess Grace Fabergé Theater Award, and a multiple-Henry Hewes Design nominee. MFA: NYU Tisch. www.arnulfomaldonado.com

Oana Botez is an international set/costume designer for film, theater, opera, and dance. She is a Princess Grace recipient, NEA/TCG Career Development Program recipient, and has received the Barrymore Award, the Drammy Award, and was nominated for the Henry Hewes Design Award. Her designs have raised critical acclaim at BAM Next Wave, Bard SummerScape/Richard B. Fisher Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, the David H. Koch Theater/Lincoln Center, Big Apple Circus/Lincoln Center, Classic Stage Company. Regionally: Wilma Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Hartford Stage , Long Wharf, Shakespeare Theatre (DC), Berkeley Rep, ArtsEmerson, Broad Stage, MCA (Chicago), ODC, The Walker Arts Center, Peak Performances, ADI, Academy of Music, The Old Globe, Curtis Institute of Music, Cutler Majestic Theater. Internationally, Oana has worked in Romania (Bucharest National Theater, Arad National Theatre), France (Théâtre National de Chaillot, Les Subsistence, Le Quartz) and Turkey (International Festival of Contemporary Theater), Peru, Germany, Italy, Singapore and United Kingdom. She has been teaching costume design at MIT. www.oanabotez.com

Yuki Nakase previously at Two River Theater: Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey adapted for the stage by David Greenspan and directed by Ken Rus Schmoll, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Michael Cumpsty, and Tony Meneses’ The Women of Padilla directed by Ken Rus Schmoll. Recent design credits include Tiny Beautiful Things (Long Wharf Theatre), Hope (Wild Project), Queen of Basel (Colony Theatre), The Hartt School Dance Division Fall Concert (University of Hartford). Next: Triptych: Eyes of One on Another (LA Phil, University Musical Society, Kennedy Center and BAM). She was born in Tokyo, grew up in Kyoto, Japan and currently lives north of NYC in the woods.  B.A. in Dance: JWCPE, M.F.A. in Lighting Design: NYU. For more information, visit http://yukinakase.com

Jane Shaw previously designed El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom, The Women of Padilla, Lives of Reason, Guadalupe in the Guest Room and Pinkolandia at Two River Theater. New York credits include I Was Most Alive with You (Playwrights Horizons); Actually (MTC, Williamstown Theatre Festival); Measure for Measure (Theatre for a New Audience); Ironbound (Rattlestick/Women’s Project); En el tiempo de las Mariposas (Repertorio Español) and 30 productions with the Mint. Regional credits include The Royale  (Cleveland Play House); Caroline, or Change (Tantrum Theater); Rear Window, Breath and Imagination (Hartford Stage); They Promised Her the Moon (Old Globe) and productions at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Mark Taper Forum, ACT, and with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Next: Annie Get Your Gun at Bay Street, Into the Breeches at Cleveland Play House. Recognition: Bessie Award, Henry Award, Drama Desk, Premios ACE 2012, two Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, Meet the Composer grant, Theatre Communications Group’s Career Development Program, and nominations for three Lortels, Henry Hewes and Elliot Norton Awards. She was born in Kansas and lives in Brooklyn.

James Ortiz (Puppet Design and Direction) Ortiz’s recent creation of Milky White for the Broadway revival of Into the Woods and the Dinosaurs for Lincoln Center’s Tony-nominated Skin of Our Teeth have become fan favorites. Recently: Disney’s Hercules. Previous credits include: The Kennedy Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, The Public Theater, Carnegie Melon University, Dallas Theatre Center, Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Ars Nova, and New World Stages. 2022 Drama Desk winner for Skin of our Teeth. 2016 OBIE winner for The Woodsman. American Theatre magazine “Six Theatre Workers you Should Know” in 2020. www.Jamesortiz.co

Will Gallacher Film/TV: Winter Rye (winner, Garden State Film Festival, dir. Victoria DeMartin), A Crime to Remember (Investigation Discovery). Theater: The Woodsman, On the Head of a Pin (Strangemen & Co.), Twelfth Night (Libra Theater Co.), Henry V and The School for Husbands (NY Classical Theatre), Associations of Hip (Overturn Theater Ensemble). He comes from Rochester, NY, via SUNY Purchase Conservatory.

Heidi Griffiths has worked for more than 25 years at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in NYC, where she has cast over 200 productions Off-Broadway and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, including Shakespeare, new plays, and musicals. On Broadway: The Girl From The North Country; The Inheritance; The Iceman Cometh; Sweat; Shuffle Along; The Crucible, Eclipsed; A Delicate Balance; A Raisin in the Sun; Lucky Guy; Chinglish; The Motherf**ker with the Hat; The Merchant of Venice; Hair; Passing Strange; Caroline, or Change; Take Me Out (Tony Award, Best Play 2003); Topdog/Underdog (Pulitzer Prize, 2002); The Wild Party; Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk; On the Town; and The Tempest. She also cast the films The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, MURDER and murder, Saving Face and Ladybird. Radio Golf is her 12th collaboration with Two River Theater.

Two River Theater: Theo, King Hedley II, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Women of Padilla, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Seven Guitars, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, and The School for Wives. Broadway (as Casting Associate): The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, A Delicate Balance, A Raisin in the Sun, Lucky Guy (Casting Assistant). Additional casting credits include work with Arena Stage, Center Theater Group, The Cherry Lane, Bedlam, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, LAByrinth, New Georges, TheaterWorks Hartford, and The Studio Theatre. Kate is a Casting Director at The Public Theater.

Alison Hassman Two River: Ropes, Pinkolandia, Crossing Borders Festival. New York: Hamilton, The Nutcracker (New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center), Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Cherry Lane, Westside Theatre, 59E59, the York, 24 Hour Play Company. Regional: McCarter, Theater Horizon, Trinity Rep, Bristol Riverside, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Premiere Stages, Philadelphia Theatre Company. Huge gratitude to Jean and Nicole. As always, for CW and AS.