Co-presented by the New Ohio theatre, NYC
February 12–20, 2021
A late-night radio DJ plunges down a rabbit hole of parallel universes in search of a dear one he has lost. This intellectually dizzying and emotionally moving English-language première will stream live from the gorgeous State Theater in Ithaca NY for five performances only. Written by Alejandro Ricaño, one of Latin America’s most brilliant and celebrated young writers.
Runtime: approximately 65 minutes, no intermission
Hotel Good Luck Artist Bios
Seth Soulstein (Bobby) is an actor, playwright, and PhD Candidate in Cornell’s Department of Performing and Media Arts, and Lecturer in Theatre Studies in the Department of Theatre Arts at Ithaca College. Seth is a Cherry Artists’ Collective Member, whose previous Cherry credits include A Cherry Timedive, The Fan, and A Day. He spent numerous years performing at hundreds of colleges, festivals, clubs and theatres with his sketch comedy troupe, the Late Night Players. His site-specific short play, Monsters in the Closet, won the “Cultchivating the Fringe” award at the Vancouver International Fringe Festival, where his longer work that he wrote and starred in, Lost in Place, had a sold out run the following year.
Desmond Bratton (Larry) is a freelance bassist, composer and pedagogue, guest lecturing at Cornell University, on faculty at Opus Ithaca. When he is not teaching Desmond works to break down the barriers created by arbitrary distinctions of musical genres by performing and recording in many different styles of music including Classical Chamber Music, Jazz and Folk. Following a third album release in 2018 with singer songwriter Travis Knapp, Desmond toured the UK and Europe with a folk group including Double Bass, Banjo, and Percussion.
Alejandro Ricaño (Playwright) is one of Mexico’s most successful and well-known playwrights. He began writing plays at an early age and by the time he was thirty had won several of Mexico’s most prestigious awards for dramatic writing: Premio Emilio Carballido for Más pequeños que el Guggenheim/Smaller Than the Guggenheim (2008); Premio Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda for Fractales/Fractals (2011); Premio INBA for El amor de las luciérnagas/Love of Fireflies (2011). Ricaño has also been the recipient of several grants, among them FONCA’s Young Creators program, the Antonio Gala Foundation in Spain, the Lark Play Development Center in New York, and CONACYT (Mexico’s National Council on Science and Technology). His plays have been staged in many parts of Mexico as well as in Spain, Hungary, Belgium, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Peru, and Buenos Aires. alejandroricano.com
Jacqueline Bixler (Translator) is a Distinguished Professor of Spanish at Virginia Tech, where she teaches courses on Latin American literature, culture and translation. Bixler has published books on Emilio Carballido, Sabina Berman, Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda, Mexico’s women playwrights, and trans-acting, as well as over sixty articles on Mexican, Argentine, Peruvian, and Chilean theatre.
Samuel Buggeln (Director) is a Canadian director, translator, and designer and the founding Artistic Director of the Cherry Artists’ Collective in Ithaca, NY. With the Cherry he has shepherded over 20 international and experimental theater works to US audiences. In NYC he is an Artistic Associate at the New Ohio Theatre where he has numerous directing credits including works adapted from French and Bulgarian texts. He is an alum of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, a member of the international theatermakers’ network The Fence, co-chair of the English-language committee of Eurodram, and has been a faculty guest artist at NYU/Tisch, Hunter College, SUNY Albany, Ithaca College, and Cornell University. www.buggeln.net
Jules Holynski (Director of Photography/Camera Operator) is a filmmaker and theatre artist originally from Marcellus, New York who specializes in cinematography and screenwriting. This has been her introduction into the Ithaca theatre community, and she is very grateful to be involved on such an innovative piece with such a dedicated group of people. Recent film credits include: Not So Sinister (DP), Summer Work (Camera Operator), Saturday Night Special (Casting Director, Asst. Gaffer). BS Video Production, BA Theatre Arts, SUNY Fredonia.
Christopher Brusberg (Lighting Designer) is a lighting designer for theater, opera, dance, live events and is excited to join The Cherry Art for his third show. Christopher has designed with the following companies: BandPortier (NYC), Opera Omaha One Festival, Annapolis Opera, Imagination Stage (DC), Wolftrap Opera/NOI, New Rep Theater (Boston), Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Actor Shakespeare Project (Boston), Company One (Boston), Caborca w/A.R.T, Boston Opera Collaborative, Guerilla Opera (Boston), Gotham Early Music Scene (NYC). Christopher received his BFA from Boston University and MFA in Lighting Design from The University of Maryland. Please visit ctblighting.com for upcoming design work.
Don Tindall (Sound Designer) is a free-lance sound designer and composer, and a professor of sound design at Ithaca College. He is excited to be designing his first show for the Cherry Arts. He has also designed for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center Theatre Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Hangar Theatre, Signature Theatre Company, Illusion Theatre, Bridge Repertory Theatre, Working Theater, and others. Don is also an active member of the OISTAT Sound Design Group, USITT Sound Commission, and the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association.
Sasha Oliveau (Costume Designer) Previous Cherry: costume design, The Shoe and On the Other Side of the Sea; assistant costume design, Testosterone and The Snow Queen (2018). Sasha is a fibers artist and designer from rural Northern Virginia. She learned to sew from her grandmother at 6 years old, and began teaching others as a young adult. Having graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Fibers, she plans to continue her education in expressive art therapy. She works with slow, meditative processes to make one of a kind, abstract expressionistic objects and textiles that create therapeutic environments.
Darcy Rose (Video Designer/Editor) Collective member. Previous Cherry: The Snow Queen, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Rule of Thumb. Darcy graduated from UCLA’s department of Theater, Film and Television with a B.A. in acting and lived in Los Angeles for many years working in commercials, television and theater. Her television credits include Grey’s Anatomy, Dinotopia and Without a Trace, as well as several national commercials, independent films and stage productions across Los Angeles theaters. She owns an on-camera acting studio
in downtown Ithaca called Acting Out New York, (www.ActingOutNewYork.com). Proud member of AFTRA/SAG.
Deletris Bryant (Environment/Properties Team) is a stage manager, director, and theatre artist originally from the Greater Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area. They are, currently, a Theatre Studies Major at Ithaca College. A few of their recent credits include: Production Stage Manager for the English Premiere of “The Shoe” (The Cherry Artspace), Assistant Stage Manager for the World Premiere of “Gather Ye Children” (Ithaca College), and Assistant Director for “Moments: An Evening of the Work of Douglas Lyons” (Ithaca College). They are also the Resident Stage Manager / Associate Director for “Bangou Productions” – a San Francisco Bay Area / Zoom-based Comedy Club with a focus on diversity, inclusion, and social justice.
Anna Cunningham (Environment/Properties Team) is a multi-faceted theatre artist from Pittsburgh, PA. Select credits include How I Learned to Drive, Macbeth, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Duquesne University Red Masquers), The Heiress (PICT Classic Theatre), American Idiot, Heathers: The Musical (The Summer Company), The Two Kids That Blow Sh*t Up, Proof, and Cry It Out (Kitchen Theatre Company). Anna received her BA in Theater Arts and Communications from Duquesne University.
Anna Fredrick (Environment/Properties Team) is a junior B.F.A. theatre production and design major at Ithaca College. She’s from Evanston, IL, and this is her first production with the Cherry! Her other credits include assistant scenic charge for Sister Act, scenic artist for Dido and Aeneas, props crew for Marisol, and electrician for Ragtime, all at Ithaca College.
Thomas Jenkeleit (Environment/Properties Team) is a third year theatrical production and design student at Ithaca College from New York City. This is their first production with the Cherry Arts and could not be more excited to be back in a theater! Previous Ithaca College Theater Arts credits include: Moments: An Evening of Work by Douglas Lyons (Media Design), Gather Ye’ Children (Scenic Design), Marie Antonette (Asst. Scenic Design), Hedda Gabler
(Prop Master), Everybody (Asst. Prop Master), Sender (Asst. Prop Master).
Noah Elman (Live Video Designer) recently graduated from SUNY Fredonia and has come back to his hometown of Ithaca to pursue stage and film directing. He is thrilled to be working with The Cherry and with this amazing group of creators. Stage directing credits: Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare on the Lake), The Pillowman (SUNY Fredonia’s PAC); Assistant directing credits: A Christmas Carol (Hangar Theatre), The Skriker (House of Ithaqua), Hamlet (Shakespeare on the Lake), Legally Blonde Jr., Alice in Wonderland Jr., and Seussical Kids (all with Playground Drama Camp). Film directing credits include: re/act, White River; BFA Acting, SUNY Fredonia.
Jen Schilansky (Stage Manager) is thrilled to be working with The Cherry
in this wild new format. Previous work for the Cherry Artspace includes The
Fan, and Felt Sad, Posted a Frog. Jen has been the resident stage manager for
the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca since 2012. KTC production favorites include: The
Royale, Ironbound, Brawler, Birds of East Africa, Hand to God, Peter and the
Starcatcher, The Mountaintop, Paloma, The Whipping Man, and Brian Dykstra
Selling Out. She has also served as the the Production Stage Manager for
the Hangar Theatre’s Pride and Prejudice, Dégagé, and A Doll’s House Part 2.
Prior to moving to Ithaca, she spent five years as the resident stage manager
for Stageworks Theater in Hudson, as well as Stage Managing for Half Moon
Theater in Poughkeepsie and Bard College.
Chris Griswold (Assistant Stage Manager/Deck Crew) is a multi-genre Stage Manager and community organizer in his final year at Ithaca College, where he is studying Stage Management and Social Movement Theory. Over the years Chris has worked in theatre, opera, dance, new music, and mixed media projects, and has found his passion in contemporary opera and new music-theatre development. His selected credits include Production Stage Manager of The Regulars (Jade Anthony Company 2021) and The Magic Flute (Ithaca College 2021), Assistant Stage Manager of A Day (Cherry Artists’ Collective
2020), Production Assistant of p r i s m (PROTOTYPE Festival 2019) and Blue (Glimmerglass Festival 2019), and Executive Director of RockHard Dance Company in Ithaca, New York (2018-). www.cgriswold.net | cgriswold.sm@gmail.com
Paul Andrews (Assistant Director) is a 2020 graduate of Ithaca College with a BA in theatre and a BS in film. Previous Cherry credits include assistant director for On the Other Side of the Sea. Ithaca College credits include male understudy for She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms, and assistant stage manager for Shifting Spaces Dance Concert and Antigone Project. He is thrilled to be a part of this wonderful team making theatre in a brand-new way!