RUSSIAN TROLL FARM

Off-Broadway: Zürich (Colt Coeur), Medea (Brooklyn Academy of Music u/s), Sleeping Rough (Page 73), No One is Forgotten (Rattlestick), The Underlying Chris (Second Stage u/s), If I Forget (Roundabout u/s), Then They Forgot About the Rest (INTAR), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New Victory Theater). Regional: Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Barrington Stage Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival, Portland Center Stage, Roundhouse, ACT, Geva, among many others. TV: The Patient, The Terminal List, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, FBI: Most Wanted, New Amsterdam, Alternatino. Training: NYU Tisch. Renata has narrated over 200 audiobooks. www.renatafriedman.com.

Off-Broadway: Kingfishers Catch Fire (Irish Rep); Please Continue, Isaac’s Eye, Photograph 51, Turnabout (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Mother (Wild Project); Elvis and Juliet (Abingdon Theatre). Regional Theater: Russian Troll Farm (Geva Theatre). Television: “Dear Edward”; “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” Film: The Heart That Stays; The Fly Room; Shadows & Lies.

Christine Lahti has been working in the film industry for nearly four decades after her initial breakthrough role in …And Justice For All. Just five years later, she would receive her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in the film Swing Shift. She would also garner an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for her movie, Lieberman in Love, in which she starred and directed. She has also won a Golden Globe for her work on “Chicago Hope,” and has been seen in the hit NBC show, “The Blacklist.” While maintaining an incredibly successful film and television career, she also has developed a noteworthy Broadway career, starting with her 1980 Broadway debut in Loose Ends. She played Gloria Steinem in the hit Off-Broadway play, Gloria: A Life and was recently in the Robbie Bait play I’ll Be Seeing Ya. Christine is currently starring in the CBS show, “Evil”, created by Michelle and Robert King–which recently earned her a Critics’ Choice Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

Broadway: The Graduate. Off-Broadway: The Royale (LCT, Drama Desk Award); Catch 22 (The Lucille Lortel); Spatter Pattern (Playwrights); Rope (Drama Dept); The Jew of Malta (TFANA). Regional: The Merchant of Venice (RSC); Midsummer (Hartford Stages); Much Ado (La Jolla); As You Like It (Shakespeare Center LA); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (The Old Globe); On the Razzle (WTF); Cult of Love (IAMA); Bell, Book, and Candle (The Old Globe). Film: Selma; Frozen; Wreck it Ralph; Zootopia; The Taking of Pelham 123; Heirloom. TV: “Black Monday”; “She-Ra”; “Instinct: Kipo”; “When They See Us”; “Hawaii Five-O”; “Grace and Frankie”; “Forever”; “The Black Donnellys”; “Law & Order”; “Trial by Jury”; “Numb3rs”; “NCIS”; “All My Children”; and “Guiding Light.” John is graduate of NYU Tisch.

Off-Broadway: The Vagrant Trilogy (The Public Theater); English (Roundabout Theatre Company/Atlantic Theater Company co-production – Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Nomination); Buggy Baby (Astoria Performing Arts Center). Regional: The Winter’s Tale (The Folger Theatre); English (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); The Vagrant Trilogy (Mosaic Theatre); The Hour of Feeling (Humana Festival). Film: Rosa (HBO); Circumstance (Sundance Audience Winner). Television (select): “The Brave” (NBC), “Law & Order: SVU” (NBC), “Bull” (CBS), “FBI” (CBS). M.F.A in Acting from The New School for Drama. Fulbright Grant recipient.

Sarah Gancher is an Obie Award-winning playwright whose work has been seen on stages worldwide including London’s National Theatre, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, The Public Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, Steppenwolf, Berkeley Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, RoundHouse (DC), Seattle Rep, and Ars Nova. (Upcoming: Playwrights Horizons Soundstage.) Recent work includes Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy (Geva Theater, dir. Darko Tresnjak; the online production for Theaterworks Hartford/Theatre Squared/The Civilians, directed by Jared Mezzocchi & Elizabeth Williamson, was selected for the NY Times Top 10 Theater of 2020.) Past collaborations have included Hundred Days and The Lucky Ones with The Bengsons, Anne Kauffman, and Sonya Tayeh; and Mission Drift with Heather Christian, Rachel Chavkin, and The TEAM. Honors include the Richard Rodgers Award, New York Stage and Film Founders’ Award, the James Stevenson Prize for Comedy, The Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, the Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Award, a Toulmin Foundation commission, several Lortel, Drama Desk, and Drama League nominations, and the AR Gurney Prize. An alumna of Ars Nova Play Group, WP Lab, P73, The Orchard Project and The Playwrights’ Realm, she is a current resident at New Dramatists. She also plays jazz and bluegrass violin. MFA: NYU. 

Darko Tresnjak won the Tony, the Drama Desk, and the Outer Critics Circle awards for his direction of A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER. He won an Obie Award for his direction of THE KILLER, starring Michael Shannon. From 2004 to 2009, Darko was the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Shakespeare Festival. From 2011 to 2019, he was the Artistic Director of Hartford Stage Company. As a director of plays, musicals, and operas, Darko has worked at Joseph Papp Public Theater, Theater for a New Audience, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Royal Shakespeare Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Vineyard Theatre Company, Atlantic Theater Company, Alley Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre Company, Goodspeed Musicals, Westport Country Playhouse, Geva Theatre Center, Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Santa Fe Opera. Favorite productions include DER ZWERG with Rodrick Dixon, REAR WINDOW with Kevin Bacon, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE with F. Murray Abraham and Kate Forbes, THE WINTER’S TALE with Kandis Chappell, and THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES with Patti LuPone. After a two-year run on Broadway, Darko’s production of ANASTASIA has been seen in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. He is writing a musical comedy, ASK FOR THE MOON, with composer Oran Eldor. 

Vineyard: Harry Clarke. Broadway: I Need That; Anastasia; A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Tony nomination); Present Laughter (Tony nomination); Old Acquaintance; Butley; Hedda Gabler. Off-Broadway: The Whisper House (59E59 Theatres); Ripcord (MTC); Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Trust; The Water’s Edge (Second Stage); Rapture Blister Burn (Playwrights Horizons); The Understudy (Roundabout); Measure for Pleasure, Paris Commune (Public Theater); Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme (Lortel winner) & Chaucer in Rome (Lincoln Center). Alexander is a professor of set design at the State University of New York, Purchase College. Training: MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Vineyard: Sandra; Eli’s Comin’; More Lies About Jerzy. Broadway: Doubt; Harmony; Summer 1976; POTUS; Take Me Out; Grand Horizons; The Great Society; Lifespan of a Fact; Anastasia (Tony Nom);  A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder (Tony Award); The Velocity of Autumn. Off-Broadway: Half God of Rainfall  & Kristina Wong Sweatshop Overlord (New York Theater Workshop); Cambodian Rock Band (Signature Theatre). Regional: Babbitt (La Jolla Playhouse), Pianist (George Street Playhouse); The Great Gatsby (Paper Mill Playhouse). Opera: Samson et Dalila (Met Opera), Turandot (Washington National Opera) Other: Advisory Committee American Theater Wing. Education: MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Marcus Doshi is an international theatre-maker and designer. He is delighted to return to The Vineyard, having previously lit A Boy and His Soul. Broadway: Pass Over (2021, also Amazon Film) and Linda Vista (2019). Off-Broadway: The Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Theatre for a New Audience, and many others. Regionally, his work has been seen at most major theatre and opera companies. Internationally, his work has been seen in 18 countries across five continents. He is the author of Towards Good Lighting for the Stage: Aesthetic Theory for Theatrical Lighting Design published by Routledge. He is a graduate of Wabash College and the Yale School of Drama and is a Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University where he teaches in the MFA Design and Directing programs. www.marcusdoshi.com

Darron L West is a Tony and Obie Award-winning sound designer specializing in new work. Of the 690 productions in his careet spanning theater, dance, and art installations, 220 have been world premieres. His soundscapes have been heard throughout the US and in 15 countries internationally. Additional honors include the Drama Desk, Lortel, Audelco, and Princess Grace Foundation Statue Award among many others. Thirty year company member designing the productions of Anne Bogart and the SITI company.

Vineyard Theatre debut. Broadway: Camelot. Broadway: Associate sound for: The Cottage, for colored girls…, Pass Over, Is This A Room, Dana H., My Fair Lady, The Play That Goes Wrong, Natasha Pierre…, Velocity of Autumn. Off-Broadway: for colored girls…, The Play That Goes Wrong, The Wolves, Freud’s Last Session. Regional: Into The Woods (Guthrie); A Little Night Music (Pasadena Playhouse); Kinky Boots (Bucks County Playhouse); Selling Kabul, Ghosts (Williamstown Theater Company); Kiss My Aztec (Hartford Stage, with Jessica Paz); A Thousand Splendid Suns (US Tour), American Girl, Live! (US Tour), The Revolutionists, An Iliad, The Price (Gulfshore Playhouse). USA829, IATSE.

Vineyard: On the Beauty of Loss (Creator, Mini-Commission), Brutal Imagination (Digital Editor). Off Broadway: Poor Yella Rednecks (Manhattan Theatre Club); Vietgone (Manhattan Theatre Club). Regional: Nether, Chad Deity (Woolly Mammoth, Company Member); Intelligence, Smart People (Arena Stage); Wild & Reckless (Portland Center Stage); Junk, History of Invulnerability (Milwaukee Rep). Digital Theater: Writer/Performer, Someone Else’s House (Geffen Playhouse); Co-Director & Designer, Russian Troll Farm (Civilians, TheaterWorks Hartford, TheatreSquared); Creator, Section 230 (HERE Arts Center). Directing: How To Catch a Star (Kennedy Center), Curious Incident, We Declare You a Terrorist (Roundhouse). Awards: 2x Obie Award (2017 & 2023), Lucille Lortel, Henry Hewes, Princess Grace, Helen Hayes, 2x MacDowell.

Originally from Northern Ireland, he headed the wig/makeup department at the Metropolitan Opera for 17 years. He has designed more than 100 Broadway productions, including Wicked, Rock of Ages, The King & I, Fiddler on the Roof, Oslo, Falsettos, The Little Foxes, Junk, My Fair Lady, King Kong, All My Sons, The Great Society, and Plaza Suite. Recent: Parade, Spamalot, Harmony.

Natalie Carney is a NYC-based props supervisor from North Carolina. This is her first show with The Vineyard. Her work has been seen on stage at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Mint Theater Company, Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center Theater, Second Stage Theater, MCC Theater and most recently for Clubbed Thumb’s 2023 Summerwork Festival and The Play Company’s 9 Knids of Silence.

Elizabeth Williamson received an Obie with Sarah Gancher and Jared Mezzocchi for the 2020 online production of Russian Troll Farm (TheaterWorks/TheatreSquared/The Civilians) and has loved continuing to work on it in person at Geva and The Vineyard. Broadway/West End: Matthew López’ The Inheritance (Tony, Olivier, Critics Circle, Evening Standard, GLAAD, Drama Desk Awards for Best Play, Outer Critics Circle Honoree), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Tony Award for Best Musical), Anastasia. Off-Broadway/Regional: Alley, Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pioneer Theatre, Primary Stages, Steppenwolf, Theatre de La Jeune Lune, Young Vic, others. Williamson currently serves as Artistic Director of Geva Theatre.

Broadway: POTUS, AIN’T NO MO, Merrily We Roll Along. Off-Broadway/Regional Theater: How To Defend Yourself, On Sugarland (NYTW); The Bandaged Place (Roundabout); The Harder They Come, Merry Wives, Romeo y Julieta (Public Theater); NIOR (The Alley Theater); Vietgone, The Royale (Geva Theater Center); The Wolves (Actors Theater of Louisville); The Three Musketeers, Romeo and Juliet, RENT, Twelfth Night, King John, Confederates, It’s Christmas, Carol! (OSF). Member of Unkle Dave’s Fight-House. Rocío was recently nominated for two Drama Desk Awards and resident Intimacy Director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Rocío is also an award-winning actor. www.rociomendez.com

Sarah Hartmann is a New York-based director and writer. Upcoming work includes writing and directing Music of the Spheres, an interdisciplinary symphony project commissioned by the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra for the 2024 eclipse. Broadway: Anastasia. Tours and International: Anastasia (National Tours and Japan), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Regional credits include work with Chautauqua Theater Company, Hartford Stage, The Old Globe, The Alley Theatre, the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, CSO, Charlottesville Opera, Playhouse on Park, Shakerbridge Theater. Educational: Julliard, NYU, the New School, LIU Post, UCSB. TV Credits: Encore! (Disney+). BA Barnard College, MA Columbia University.

Broadway: Jagged Little Pill; Cats; Dames at Sea; Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella; The Invention of Love; The Lion King; The Addams Family; Hairspray. Off-Broadway includes: Cornelia Street; The Orchard; Little Miss Sunshine; On The Line; Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly; Madagascar; Talking Pictures; A Movie Star Has to Star in Black & White; Menopause! The Musical; Woody Guthrie’s American Song; Griller; Amphigorey. TV: Lipstick Jungle; The Black Donnellys.

Vineyard: Scene Partners, This Land Was Made. Other NYC: When We Get There (York Theatre); KIN (WP Theater); Smart Blonde (59E59); The Imbible (New World Stages); Titanique (The Green Room 42); Fish In A Tree (Theatre Row); Women on Fire (Royal Family); Anne of Green Gables Part I and II (Royal Family); You, Me, I, We, (Royal Family). Tours: Little Black Dress and The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Musical. Regionally: Lyric Rep, Hangar Theatre, Geva Theatre, The Rose Theater, and Chester Theatre. BFA: UW-Milwaukee. @tydanhaus