CAST
Maya Knell (CHAVA) is a queer actress, comedian, and multidisciplinary artist. A graduate of Bennington College and a lifelong theater performer, she is so excited to be a part of the world premiere production of Mikvah Girls alongside this incredible cast and production team. Chaviva 4ever!!! Credits: TV: I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson FILM: Bubbles the Clown, Baby Gay, Reflect, Zombie Wedding STAGE: SICK, Chebutykin, As You Like It, Circle Mirror Transformation, Daughters of Io, Fairy Tale, The Seagull, Top Girls, Romeo & Juliet, Circadian, Gravitas, and Almost Maine. @mayaknell | www.mayaknell.com
Sofia JoAnna (AVIVA) (she/her) is an actor / dancer / creative, especially passionate about coming-of-age projects. She is based in Los Angeles and represented by Baron Entertainment. Sofia has starred in Monkey Bars and Babyface, both of which have screened in festivals all over the country. She has also collaborated with See Humans on multiple theatrical productions in New York (Off-Broadway), LA, and Boston as a choreographer, performer, and creative team member. You can find Sofia cracking jokes in various King Bach sketches, exploring the complexities of girlhood in over a dozen independent short films/pilots (many of which are about to hit the festival circuit), dancing behind pop singer Darvishi, and even producing/directing/ choreographing her own work. Sofia is overjoyed to be a part of bringing Mikvah Girls to the stage and feels honored to be gifted with such a brilliant script.
Rachel Wender (RACHEL) is honored to be making her Fringe debut in “Mikvah Girls” as Rachel, a role she’s been training for all her life. A native New Yorker, Rachel graduated from Pace University in 2017 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Acting. During that time, she traveled with her ensemble to Romania to take part in the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, and eventually went on to write and perform her own one woman show, “On the Mountain Top”. Other credits include the role of Natalie in the film “Tahara”, which premiered at Slamdance in 2020. She would like to thank her friends and family for supporting her, most notably her parents. Of being raised by a Rabbi and a lawyer she said, “I always knew being named after a character from the Bible would come in handy sooner or later.”
Jesse Katz (BRUCE) is a New York native who came out to LA just under 6 months ago. While in New York, he studied at studios such as Stella Adler and T. Schrieber, as well as acting in many short and independent films. Jesse is humbled and excited to be playing the infamous Bruce Springsteen and cannot wait to make his Hollywood Fringe Festival debut!
Jonathan Jennings (BON JOVI) is excited to make his Fringe Festival debut in "Mikvah Girls." A stage and film actor, Jonathan has brought his talent to a variety of productions. Notable stage credits include "All Shook Up" and "High School Musical" with The Crown Uptown Dinner Theatre. His on-screen work features supporting roles in films such as "Babylon" (dir. Damien Chazelle) and "Follower" (dir. James Rich), as well as a guest star role in the TV series "CON" (Season 1/2, dir. Amy Suto). Jonathan is thrilled to bring his passion and energy to the Fringe Festival and the role of Bon Jovi in "Mikvah Girls."
CREATIVE TEAM
Emmy Weissman (Playwright) (she/her) is a playwright based in NYC. Her plays include Sugar (The Maker's Ensemble Short Play Fest), Glow Worms (Chain Theatre) and Mikvah Girls (Art House Productions, Breaking and Entering Theatre Co., This is a Front Theatre). Film: Gracie Green is Getting Resurrected. She was a playwright-in-residence with Art House Productions’ INKubator New Play Program and a Tennessee Williams scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference. She is a Theatermacher fellow at the Alliance for Jewish Theater and will be an incoming MFA Playwriting student at Hunter College in Fall 2024. BFA in Drama- NYU. As a theatre educator, she has worked with the Brooklyn Arts Council, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Classic Stage Company, Arts Connection, Girl Be Heard, NYC Children's Theater, The 92nd Street Y, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and SOUL Sisters Leadership Collective.
Brian Eckert (Director) is a director and adapter of plays and musicals invested in understanding systems, the how and why we relate to each other. Most recently in Los Angeles, he directed and produced the Austrian play Jackie by Elfriede Jelinek and Lucas Hnath’s play A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney. His work has been shown at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute in New York and Two River Theater. Brian is also the Artistic Director of the new theatre company This Is A Front. He is a frequent associate to director Sarna Lapine and others, including the legendary Graciela Daniele and Ruben Santiago-Hudson. He has worked Off-Broadway and regionally at Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, Classic Stage Company, New York City Center, and Pasadena Playhouse. BFA: NYU. brianeckertdirector.com
Benny Pitt (Scenic Designer) is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist who creates spaces that facilitate unexpected, layered, and thought-provoking storytelling. As a designer, he has worked at The Tank, CalArts, Movement Research, Dixon Place, Playwrights Downtown, NYU Tisch, Hunter College, and on commercial projects for Absolut Vodka and Stanley Steemer. As an assistant, he has worked with Chris Barreca, Frank Oliva, Efren Delgadillo Jr., Deb O, and Ásta Bennie Hostetter. Benny holds an MFA in Experience Design and Production from CalArts and a BFA in Theatre from NYU Tisch. bennypitt.com @benny_pitt
Danica Martino (Costume Designer). Recent design credits include; Wheels on the Bus (Pasadena Playhouse), Grumpy Monkey (Pasadena Playhouse), I Watched you Become Death (Feature Film), A Place Where Horses Die (Feature Film). She recently received her MFA from CalArts.
Jimmy Mura (Sound Designer) is a sound designer, composer, musician and all around audio person. Recent sound design works include “Jackie,” “The Last Supper and Five Years Later,” and the radio play "Testing Dunleavy-Grove" with the Fast Radio Burst! podcast. He attended Marymount Manhattan College where he left with a BA in Theatre Studies with a concentration in directing and works as an audio engineer for The Walt Disney Company.
Carly DW Bones (Intimacy Director) is a theatre director, intimacy director/ coordinator, sex educator, community facilitator and thespomancer aka theatre witch. She works at the intersections of performance, ritual, sexuality, gender, community and trauma-sensitivity. Carly created and directed at the feminist theatre ensemble, The Illyrian Players, from 2011-2019. They have also directed at: Coin & Ghost, The Echo, EST LA, Inkwell Theater, The Road, Rogue Artists Ensemble, The Vagrancy. Carly works as a freelance intimacy director and educator in the Los Angeles area for theatre companies (A Noise Within, Antaeus, Boston Court, Coeurage, Coin & Ghost, East West Players, EST LA, Ghost Road, Greenway Court, Hero Theatre, IAMA, Moving Arts, The Road, Skylight, Son of Semele, StarKid, Theatre 40) and university theatre programs (Cal Lutheran University, CSULA, CSULB, Emerson LA, Occidental College, UCLA, UCR, USC, Pomona College). www.thespomancer.com
This Is A Front (Producer) is a new LA-based company staging connections through theatre and social moments. We envision a vibrant creative community that reshapes how we understand our role in each other’s lives. IG: @thisisafront.theatre. Artistic Director: Brian Eckert. Company Members: Sasan Ahmed*, Everleigh Brenner*, Al Kimathy Gertig, Maya Knell*, Joshua Moreno*, Jimmy Mura* (* - core member).
PRODUCTION STAFF
Executive Producer - Diana Buckhantz
Technical Director - Joshua Moreno
Assistant Sound Designer - Nick DePinto
Graphic Designer - Lucas Castro
Mikvah Girls was originally developed with Art House Productions’ INKubator new play residency, with Raffi Donatich as Chava, Laura Herskov as Aviva, Sarah Weitzmann as Rachel, Chris DeSantis as Bruce Springsteen, and Laura Galindo as Bon Jovi under the direction of Karma Masselli, with costumes by Hannah Bird and dramaturgy by Diana Schlossberg
A FEW NOTES
A mikvah is a Jewish community space and a ritual bath of moving water, most commonly used by women as a means of accessing purity, spirituality, reflection, and a readiness to connect with God. Traditionally, after marriage, women will visit the mikvah monthly after menstruation.
Content warning: This play contains discussion and imagery of physical abuse and suicidal ideation.
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