Benard Cummings' directing credits inlude: Harvest (Off-Broadway), Flying West, The Three Sisters, Dark of the Moon, Tennessee Williams one-acts at SUNY Purchase; As You Like It and Playing for Time at Stella Adler Conservatory in NYC; Can You Spare Some Social Change: One-Woman show by Deirdre Boddie-Henderson at WOW Cafe in NYC. As an Actor has worked in Regional Theatres across the country including The Goodman Theatre, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Hartford Stage Company, Yale Rep. Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and the Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, D.C., Signature Theatre and Working Theatre in NYC, as well as some episodic TV. As a Playwright, his work has been produced in the HumanaFestival of New American Plays, The Women's Tapestry Project in NYC, Twice as Loud Theatre Company in London, England; Theatre Geo and Howard Fine Studios in Los Angeles, Stamford Theatre Works, Jubilee Theatre of Ft. Worth, TX and The E.T.A. Performing Arts Center in Chicago, IL, to name a few. He is a guest lecturer in acting at SUNY Purchase, The Stella Adler Conservatory, Pace University, and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. A native Texan, he is a graduate of Tyler Junior College, Southern Methodist University and the Yale School of Drama.
Lisa Devine holds an MFA in Directing New Works from the University of Oklahoma. She has coached actors for 15 years at the college/university level at some of the country’s top acting conservatories including DePaul University, Rutgers University and University of the Arts. She has the ability to teach 3 disciplines including Theater, Communication, and Film. In 2006, Lisa was nominated for Leading Educator of Higher Education in Philadelphia, PA. In 2000, she was awarded the Exemplary Achievement Teaching Award for her outstanding contribution and personal commitment to her teaching while at San Jacinto College in Houston, TX. She is currently on faculty in the Theater Department at Collin County Community College. Lisa enjoys dividing her time between academic and professional theater. While attending the University of Oklahoma, she caught the attention of New York producer and two-time Tony award winner Max Weitzenhoffer. Though her association with Weitzenhoffer, she was hired for major productions that included directing the regional premiere of Eye of God and assistant directing a World Premiere musical Jack starring three-time Tony award winner John Cullum, and assistant directing a modernized version of No Strings with the Bernstein estate. In 1998, she was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Director in her Chicago production of Eye of God which was extended for a 6-month run. In 2001, the world premiere production of Cheating Death received 22 awards including Judge’s Choice and Directing at the national play competition KC/ACTF. Lisa is proud to call Rover Dramawerks in Plano, Texas her theatrical home as a Resident Director. Most recently she directed the critically acclaimed production of Mary's Wedding in which she hosted the award-winning playwright, Stephen Massicote. Also for Rover Dramawerks, she directed An Infinite Ache and Private Eyes. Next season, Lisa is directing Veronica's Room and Days of Wine and Roses.
Denny Lawrence studied at Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (where Mel Gibson and Cate Blanchett trained) and the Australian Film and Television School (where Phillip Noyce and Jane Campion were students) as well as with Stella Adler and Jerzy Grotowski.
He has had a long and varied career as actor, writer, producer, director in Film, Theatre and Television in Australia, North America and the U.K.
His work as an actor began with tours for Sir Tyrone Guthrie and the Royal Shakespeare Company and then included seasons for leading theatre companies in Australia and England and a great deal of film and television acting.
After making some award-winning short films he went on to direct more than 100 hours of multiple-camera television before embarking on his first feature, which won an AFI Award (Australia’s Oscars). He has written five feature films, directed six and also written and/or directed a number of television movies and miniseries. He has been the recipient of two Australian Film Institute Awards and a number of awards from the Australian Writers Guild and also a BAFTA (English Oscar) nomination.
He has worked with many of Australia’s well-known actors, including Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Wendy Hughes, Nicole Kidman, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts and Hugo Weaving.
He is currently Executive Director of Television and Acting & Directing studies at Kanbar Institute of Film and Television, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
Lee Roy Rogers, Off-Broadway: Vivien Leigh in Orson’s Shadow (Barrow Street) Drama Desk Nomination Featured Actress, Children of a Lesser God (Keen Company), 365 Plays/365 Days (The Public), Death Bed (Apparition) Chicago credits include: The Man Who Came To
Dinner, Orson’s Shadow (world premiere), A Fair Country (us) all at Steppenwolf, Prin (Wild Life) Joseph Jefferson Citation Actress in a Principal Role, The Price (Writers’ Theatre) Jeff Award Best Play. Regional: Williamstown, West Port Country Playhouse, The Vilar Center, Carmel Festival and The Barbican (London). TV & Film: Road to Perdition, L&O: CI, Book of Daniel, Canterbury’s Law & upcoming web series Behind the Star. Lee Roy teaches acting at CAP21 NYU. During her years in Chicago Lee Roy taught at DePaul University, The Acting Studio and Zebra Crossing. She also served as the Artistic Director of AIDS Educational Theatre, a musical touring ensemble performing at high schools and colleges across the country.
Richard Mawe most recently appeared as Sheriff Rogers in the Off Broadway production of Eye of God with Theatre East, and Rick in the Off Broadway production of Harvest and as Danforth in the Capital Repertory's production of The Crucible where he also appeared in Inherit the Wind, Proof, and You Can't Take It With You. Other regional credits include, All My Sons at the Clarence Brown Theater, Knoxville, Tennessee; the Delaware Theater's production of A Delicate Balance and Glengarry Glen Ross; and the world premiere of Israel Horovitz's 50 Years of Caddying at the Gloucester Stage Company. Mawe also appeared in the Boston premieres of Valley Song at New Repertory Theatre and Molly Sweeney at the Nora Theatre, where he was also seen in Spoon River Anthology and as Willy Loman in the Boston Theatre Award-winning production of Death of a Salesman . King Lear with the Harvard Class of 1999, and at the Lyric Stage in Mornings at Seven. Among the twenty productions he has done in New York are Richard II at the Eleventh Hour Theatre Company, Rush's Dream at the Here Theatre, Made in Heaven at the American Jewish Theatre, Orphans at Julliard's Open Stage, The One Big Shot at Naked Angels and Horton Foote's Habitation of Dragons at the HB Playwrights. Mr. Mawe's film appearances include The Human Stain, Nobody's Fool, Bird, Excessive Force, Conspiracy Theory, Rounders, and Woody Allen's Alice, Small Time Crooks, and Celebrity. Mr. Mawe teaches at HB Studios in New York City, where he also studied with Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen.
Lawrence Arancio is an actor, director, writer and teacher. He has appeared in over thirty plays regionally and in New York, including Drawer Boy, Awake and Sing!, School for Scandal, Otherwise Engaged, Ivanov, The Nerd, The Normal Heart, The House of Blue Leaves, Good and Table Manners. His most recent directing credits include Yellowman and A Different Moon at Penguin Rep, and Pages, a new musical, at C.A.P. 21. His film work includes Extreme Measures and Saving Shiloh. On TV, he guest starred on “Law and Order” (three times), “The Practice,” and “Party of Five” and had recurring roles on “Total Security” and “As the World Turns.” As a writer, his fiction and poetry have appeared in The Iowa Review and other literary journals; his plays Mystery in Space, Alcimero and Sing for your Supper have been produced in New York and Chicago. He currently teaches acting and is the Chair of the Acting department at C.A.P 21. He has also taught at HB Studio, AMDA and Columbia College Chicago. He has been married to the actress Ann Dowd for a long time and they have two wonderful children.
