Cast of Uncle Vanya
Tom has been seen in over 70 productions across the country from Idaho Repertory, American Stage, the Hippodrome, Company One, to the Hangar Theatre, NY; roles include:Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, All's Well That Ends Well, Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, Tartuffe, All My Sons, You Never Can Tell, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Lie of the Mind, Lend Me a Tenor, Noises Off, among others. Tom was in the original Off Broadway cast of Peter Parnell's Hyde in Hollywoodat Playwrights Horizons in NYC (PBS American Playhouse), directed by Gerald Gutierrez. Tom was a guest artist at Oberlin Conservatory in Taming of the Shrewwith Peter Needham of the Royal Shakespeare Company and as Mr. Peachum in Threepenny Opera. Locally he did the title roles in staged readings of Titus Andronicusand King Learat the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival -Tulane both directed by Michael A. Newcomer. At LSU’s Swine Palace URTA Theatre in rotating rep of Chekov’s The Seagull(Sorin) with Stupid F***ing Bird (Sorn); Mr. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice;and Judge Irwin in All the King’s Men. He holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology and Interracial / Intercultural Communication, and an MFA in Theatre Performance from The Meadows School of the Arts at SMU.
Tom is retired from his other career as an entrepreneur with several start-ups in NYC raising over $30 million in venture capital. His work as a lead volunteer at Ground Zero during 9-11 led to a career in first responder technologies and crisis management. Tom was living in Baton Rouge when Hurricane Katrina made landfall and worked extensively with state & local emergency management. Tom became the Executive Director of the Stephenson Disaster Management Institute at LSU created from a $25 million gift to the university following Katrina. Senator Mary Landrieu invited Tom to join the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Delegation to the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan in 2010. He also served on the Louisiana Governor’s Interagency Committee formed to respond to the Deepwater Horizon BP Oil Spill. Tom is the co-author of the peer reviewed published textbook, “A Model of Public-Private Sector Collaboration in the Provision of Disaster Relief Incentives”. Tom continues to write and is currently at work on a number of plays and screenplays as well as a memoir called, Are These My Pants?
Jane Nichols is a teacher, director, and actor who has been teaching Clown for 30 years. Her work brings together skills and techniques of Improvisation, Mask, Le Jeu, Physical Comedy, Clown, and Fool. She has studied with Philippe Gaulier and Keith Johnstone, and has taught at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, Harvard University, Brown University, ART, ACT, Stella Adler Conservatory, The Actors Center of NYC, and Shakespeare & Co in Lenox, MA. She is currently Adjunct Faculty at University of Washington. Since moving to Seattle she has directed shows at WET, the Intiman, UW, Cornish School of the Arts, Seattle University, and Seattle Shakespeare Co. Former students can be seen performing at Cirque du Soleil, Blue Man Group, Ashland Shakespeare Festival, and are featured in leading roles in film and TV.
As an actress, Jane has performed Off-Broadway with En Garde Arts; New Georges; Synapse Productions. Regionally she has performed at Dallas Theatre Center; Portland Stage; Shakespeare & Co; Gloucester Stage Co; Nora Theatre; Lyric Stage; Berkshire Public; Counterpoint Theatre; Cambridge Theatre Co. Her film and TV credits include School Ties; Heights; The Living Room Waltz; Ed; Law & Order SVU; America’s Most Wanted; Connect With English; and Rachel’s Dinner with Olympia Dukakis. She has worked as a voice over artist and has been featured in five national TV commercials.
Leicester is a theatre artist and educator based in Baton Rouge. He has performed on stages across the country. He is an alum of the Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA program, the Chautauqua Theatre Conservatory, and the LSU School of Music and Dramatic Arts. He is a member of The Willams Project theatre company in Seattle and the International theatre outreach organization Stories 4 Strength.
After two decades in New York City, Jana has found her a new home in New Orleans this past year. She has played the leading role of Mary Griffith in Prayers for Bobby performed by the Astoria Symphonic Choir, Nancy in This Living Hand by Pulitzer-nominated playwright Richard Vetere as part of both The New Group New Works Series and in a staged reading at Cherry Lane, Gina in Little Light Production’s Under Covers, Hester Prynne in The New Globe’s Theatre, Inc.’s The Scarlet Letter at both Playhouse on Park in Hartford, Connecticut and The Gene Frankel Theatre in Manhattan. In addition to playing Hester, Jana is credited with the original adaptation of Hawthorne’s novel alongside her mentor and friend Stuart Vaughan (founding Artistic Director of The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park with Joe Papp). Other highlights include Beatrice in The New Globe Theatre, Inc.’s The Servant of Two Masters at Theatre Three, The Angel Project with Tony Award-winner Deborah Warner (Lincoln Center Festival), Fool for Love (Bleecker Street Theatre), When A Storm Comes (Epic Repertory Theatre Company, DR2), The Informer (Ernie Martin Studio Theatre), Unexpected Tenderness (written & produced by Emmy Award-winner Israel Horovitz), many seasons as a company actor with The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ Imaginary Theatre Company, Trick of Fate (The Players Club), and her New York film debut in The New Guy. She also played leading role in the independent short film “Broken”, directed by David Johnson. In addition to her BA in French and Theatre, she holds an MFA in Acting from the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University. She has studied at The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, Théâtre des Cinquantes in Paris, France, and The Actors Studio. Her work continued beyond the professional stage having served four years as Chair of Performing Arts at the prestigious Spence School among other positions at St. John’s University, The Buckley School, the Birch Wathen Lenox School. In New Orleans, Jana served as the Director of Education at Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré. She is a member of all three professional unions (AEA, SAG-AFTRA) and has performed in television commercials, and theatre nationally and internationally.
Broadway: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, MARY POPPINS, TWELVE ANGRY MEN, THE CARETAKER, DINNER AT EIGHT, THE HEIRESS.
TV includes: “FBI: Most Wanted”, “The Blacklist”, “Blue Bloods”, “Madam Secretary”, “Suits”, “Mister Robot”, "House of Cards" (recurring), "Law & Order: SVU" (recurring), "Person of Interest", "Made in Jersey", "The Good Wife", "Fringe", "Rescue Me", Law & Order" and “Darwin”
(DarwinTheSeries.com)
Film (Upcoming): Irresistible
Training: UE (BFA), NYU (MFA)
McMurdo-Wallis has performed in theatres across the country. In New Orleans: Southern Rep; The Last Madame (Big Easy Award), Rising Water, Airline Highway. Elsewhere: Nickel and Dimed (original cast) Intiman Theatre, Seattle/Mark Taper Forum, LA; Angels in America, Millenium and Perestroika (ACT, San Francisco, Drama-Logue and Bay Area Critics Circle Awards); Cymbeline (Hartford Stage/McCarter Theatre, Collected Stories (Berkeley Rep, Drama-Logue Award); two seasons with Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other theatres include: Seattle Rep, A Contemporary Theatre, Denver Center, Alaska Rep, The Huntington (Boston) Papermill Playhouse, Diamond Head Theatre (Honolulu), New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Indiana Rep, Portland Stage Company. McMurdo-Wallis has appeared in several off-Broadway productions and with Al Pacino in Salome (Stamford, CT). Film and TV: The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, American Heart, (with Jeff Bridges), Guiding Light.) Cristine is a regular narrator for Recorded Books, Inc. in New York
Born and raised in New Orleans, Liz spent twelve years in New York City, and three in California. She returned to her hometown in 2014, to revive the acting program at her alma mater, Isidore Newman School. Her passion for creativity, connection, compassion and collaboration serve as guiding principles in her roles as actor, director and educator. Liz originated the role of Kat in the Off-Broadway World Premiere of Sea of Tranquility (Atlantic Theater Company). Other theatre credits include: The Deception (La Jolla Playhouse / Theatre de la Jeune Lune), LoveSick (59E59Theaters), and The Fox (George Frankel Theatre). Liz has an MFA in Theatre from USCD where she performed in Pericles, Good Breeding, The Love of the Nightingale and Gum. Liz received a BFA with Honors in Theatre from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School and Stella Adler Studio of Acting. While there, she performed in Cymbeline and When Shakespeare’s Ladies Meet. Liz has a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for Black Panther. She has also appeared in the films: Breaking News in Yuba County, Assassination Nation, Out of Blue, Bad Moms, and Award-Winning Short Film Harry Grows Up. Television credits include: NCIS: New Orleans, Army Wives, Mercy. Directing credits include: Grease, An Importance of Being Earnest, Noises Off, I Hate Hamlet, Leading Ladies and All in the Timing. A lifelong singer, Liz was a Victory Belle at The National WWII Museum, while also creating and performing in thematic concerts An Evening in the 70s and Deep Like the Rivers, both in NYC. She has appeared in commercials for Sanderson Farms, SpongeBob SquarePants and in the National Got Milk? Ad Campaign. She is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. Liz is also a Certified Enneagram Teacher, and offers individual sessions and workshops as owner of Art of the Enneagram.
Michael has called New Orleans home since 2015, after long stays in both New York City and Los Angeles. Since moving here, Michael has appeared onstage at Le Petit Theatre in A Christmas Carol (2018/19) as Fred and Freud’s Last Session as C.S. Lewis, as well as Darcy in Christmas at Pemberly with Southern Rep and Calisto in The Illusion at the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival. Additionally, Michael was the curator of a staged reading series at the New Orleans Shakespeare festival, directing and performing in Othello, Titus Andronicus, and King Lear. As a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association for 22 years and current Central Principal Councilor serving on the AEA National Council, Michael has also performed in over 35 professional productions across the country including these favorites: Tom in Glass Menagerie (Virginia Stage), Christy in Playboy of the Western World (New Jersey Shakespeare and A Noise Within), Lelie in The Bungler (A Noise Within), Konstantin in The Seagull (Portland Center Stage), Macduff in Macbeth and Cassio in Othello (The Old Globe), Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest (Dallas Theatre Center), and Morris in The Heiress (South Coast Rep). Michael’s T.V./Film credits include: NCIS: New Orleans, Claws, Person of Interest, All My Children, A Thousand Cuts, A Father’s Revenge, Pants on Fire, In the Flesh, Harmony, Redemption, Unforgivable and the upcoming Tate Taylor film Breaking News in Yuba County. He can also be seen roaming the virtual world of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto V and has appeared in national campaigns for Volvo, Verizon FiOS, and Old El Paso.
Brad Makarowski – Is thrilled to be working with Crescent City Stage. In New York, he's a Resident Company member of the TITAN Theatre Co. where he's been seen in: Richard III, King Lear, Hamlet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and A Christmas Carol. Off Broadway: The Flea: Design Your Kitchen; Metropolitan Playhouse: Both Your Houses; Resonance Ensemble: R.U.R., Caesar and Cleopatra; Attic Theatre: The Time of Your Life, Moonchildren. Regional: Shakespeare Theatre Co., Asolo Rep, Palm Beach Dramaworks, People's Light, Depot Theatre. Film: Ask for Jane, The Heart Outright TV: Happy!, Redrum. MFA: FSU/Asolo Conservatory. Much Love to all during this pandemic. www.BradMakarowski.com
@BradMakarowski on Twitter and Instagram