The Marriage

Written by WITOLD GOMBROWICZ
Translated From the Polish by Louis Iribarne

La MaMa Presents in partnership with
The Polish Cultural Institute in NY
Jan Kochanowski Powszechny Theater of Radom
Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM)

DIRECTOR
Zishan Ugurlu

FEATURING
Bill Bowers
Celeste Ciulla
Gardiner Comfort
Annie Hägg
Conor Andrew Hall
Anna Podolak
Alex Scoloveno
Jackson Scott
Oluwaseun “Kayodè” Soyemi

DESIGNERS
Michał Dracz
Krystian Szymczak
Sam Sellers

DRAMATURGS
Alexandra Chasin
Shari Perkins

PRODUCTION/STAGE MANAGER
Dakota Silvey
Producer for "The Marriage": Tomek Smolarski and Małgorzata Potocka

ASSISTANTS
Lillie Schenkel: Assistant to Production / Stage Manager
Samantha Tonn: Assistant to Production / Stage Manager
Lily Taggart: Assistant to Set / Lighting / Costume Designers

Zishan Ugurlu (Director) is a resident actress and director at La MaMa Theater and a member of the Great Jones Repertory Company. She has worked extensively as a theater artist in New York and abroad. She has recently directed Medea with Great Jones Repertory Company, drawing attention to a very specific dimension that explored Medea as an immigrant, exiled, investigating parallels between the myth and the current refugee crisis by collaging real stories, ancient tongues, and hackable audiovisual systems. Her directing credits include Fragments, Lists, and Lacunae, written by Alexandra Chasin, featuring philosopher Judith Butler as a performer at New York Live Arts. The Franca Rame Project by Franca Rame & Dario Fo, Agamemnon by Aeschylus, and She Talks to Beethoven by Adrienne Kennedy. She recently received the 2020 Gramsci Award for Theater in Prison. She teaches at Lang College, The New School University, as a Professor of Theater.

Sam Sellers (Sound Design) creates radically inclusive spaces through music at concerts, on dancefloors and in classrooms. Since first appearing on wax in 2001, he’s performed on 5 continents, evolving though the paths of champion freestyler, chart-topping songwriter and cypher legend while remaining one of NYC’s favorite DJs. From starring on MTV’s MADE to headlining the Blue Note Jazz Festival to traveling the globe as State Dept Cultural Ambassador to DJing SNL afterparties, Sam brings rooms together via musical poetic journeys centered on collective liberation, self-reflection, the Jazz aesthetic, and the lineage of Hip Hop tradition. He is in his 10th year teaching at The New School (NYC) and is releasing his new album, “Fake Flowers Last Forever” on October, 18, 2024.

Shari Perkins (Dramaturg) is a freelance dramaturg and editor. She earned an MFA in Dramaturgy from the ART Institute at Harvard University/Moscow Art Theatre School. At ART, Shari provided dramaturgy for productions ranging from Euripides’ The Bacchae to the Pulitzer Prize-nominated rock opera Orpheus X. Her work has been seen in the United States in Boston, Providence, and New York, and internationally in Hong Kong, Edinburgh, and Moscow. Shari worked on the US premieres of Kirill Serebrennikov’s productions of Playing the Victim and Zoya’s Apartment and as the language and technical advisor for Serebrennikov’s first English-language film, Limonov: The Ballad (Cannes 2024). Recently, she served as dramaturg for Krymov Lab NYC’s productions of Love Stories and Eugene Onegin: In Our Own Words, and for the workshop production of Argia Coppola’s Cursed. Her upcoming projects include an original piece by Dmitry Krymov for Krymov Lab NYC in 2025.

Dakota Silvey (Production Stage Manager)  is a playwright, EMT, wildland firefighter and Air Force veteran. Dakota’s work has been supported by Daisy Theatricals, GrannyCart, Broadway Bookclub, 24 Bond Arts, The Gene Frankel Theatre and VetRep Theater. Awards include: Winner NYC SPF, Winner 15 Minutes of Frame, Semi-Finalist for AITAF Bridge Award, 2nd place VetRep 1 Act Competition and selection to the William Inge Festival’s New Play Lab 2024. He is a Cut Edge Experimental Theatre Writing Collective member and a 2024 Sewanee Writers’ Conference Fellow. Dakota is an M.F.A. candidate at Actors Studio Drama School. Dakota is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and the Dramatists’ Guild.

Lillie Schenkel (Assistant to Production/Stage Manager) is a versatile American-Australian actor and theater-maker with a passion for storytelling. Lillie has honed her craft through years of training at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA,) and The New School. With her dedication to her craft, she continues to charm audiences and establish herself as a strong presence in the world of theater.

Samantha Tonn: (Assistant to Production/Stage Manager) is a Brazilian-American multi-hyphenate artist based in New York City. Hailing from both Seattle Washington and Rio De Janeiro Brazil, Samantha’s artistic passions include: acting, fusion belly dance, cinematography and video editing, aerial circus arts, creative writing, foreign language studies, and whatever she’s currently hyperfixating on. When she’s not at her desk or running around with a camera, you can find her dancing her heart out wherever there’s music, or utterly lost in a good book. Follow her on Instagram: @samantha.tonn

Lily Taggart (Scenic/Lighting/Costume Assistant) is currently studying Integrated Design and Theater at The New School. Her work in production design has involved the design of sets, projections, lighting, and sound for performances in New York and Central Florida. Some recent design credits include Patterns of Disturbance: Chekov and Other Strangers and The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder. She would like to thank Zishan for her guidance and support throughout her academic process and the start of her career.

Bill Bowers (Father) has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.  His Broadway credits include Zazu in The Lion King, and Leggett in The Scarlet Pimpernel.  His solo plays have been produced Off Broadway, and in festivals and theatres around the globe. He is featured in the films Two Weeks’ Notice, Lost Cause and on television in Disney’s Out of the Box, Remember W.E.N.N, All My Children, the PBS adaptation of Peter and the Wolf, and the documentary series Brief But Spectacular. Bill appears in the upcoming television series BEFORE starring Billy Crystal.  www.Bill-Bowers.com

Celeste Ciulla (Drunkard/Ambassador) is thrilled to be making her La Mama debut in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute and to be working with Zishan Ugurlu! She has spent decades working in America’s Regional and Off-Broadway theatres.  Her favorite roles have included Laura Reynolds in Tea & Sympathy, Tamora in Titus Andronicus, Dona Angelica in The Phantom Lady, Eleanor in The Lion in Winter and Bev/Kathy in Clybourne Park.  She is a native New Yorker, an Audiobook Narrator, a graduate of Northwestern and Harvard Universities, a member of SAG/AFTRA and AEA, and a co-host of the NoName StoryTeller Podcast. Celeste is proud to call Claude Choukrane her Inamorato!  www.celesteciulla.com‍

Gardiner Comfort (Drunkard/Dignitary/Traitor/Chancelor) is thrilled to be on this journey with Zishan and the team! Select credits: Julius Caesar- ART and multiple tours; Fishmen- Intar; Henry IV, Part one- BAM and Hebbel Theater, Berlin; Be The Death of Me- Civilians (workshop); The Zero Hour- 13P: A Parsifal- PS 122; Funeral Games- Public Theater (workshop); Red Beads- Mabou Mines; You’re Not Tough (original solo show)- Dixon Place and HERE; The Elephant in Every Room I Enter (original solo show)- La Mama, NYTW Next Door. Film- Battle Rattle (original short film). Gardiner serves on the board of the NYC Chapter of the Tourette Association of America and is an advocate in the disability community. MFA from ART. gardinercomfort.com

Annie Hägg (Molly) is an actress and singer from New York City. She has appeared extensively on both stage and screen, and is best known on television for playing Holocaust survivor Ruth Heidelbaum opposite Al Pacino in the Amazon series “Hunters.” On stage, Annie is a frequent collaborator of renowned Russian auteur theatre director Dmitry Krymov, appearing in such projects as Three Love Stories by the Railroad (La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club), Chaplin and Mikhoels (New York Theatre Workshop), The Square Root of Three Sisters (International Festival of Arts and Ideas) and Uncle Stan in Berlin (Krymov Lab NYC). Other stage credits include Cursed (HERE Arts Center), Dancing at Lughansa (Irish Repertory Theatre), The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Indecent, The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls and Owners (Yale Repertory Theatre), The Chaikas (MiMoDa Studio), Staging Wittgenstein (Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and Boeing-Boeing (New Harmony Theatre). On television, Annie’s credits include the upcoming “Daredevil: Born Again” opposite Charlie Cox, “Olga Dies Dreaming” opposite Aubrey Plaza, “Pose,” “The Blacklist,” “Blue Bloods,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Law & Order: SVU” and the aforementioned “Hunters.”  Her film credits include Tomorrow (with Stephen Fry), A Place We Go To, Prepartum, So Good to See You, Symposium and The River, among others.

Conor Andrew Hall (Drunkard/Dignitary/Chief) is a New York based actor from Michigan. To try to express with words his gratitude for the cast, creative, crew, and to audience would take up more than the space allotted.

Anna Podolak (Mother/Queen) is honored to be back at La MaMa Theater. She is a theater and film actress, as well as a voice-over artist. She studied theater at Fordham University and honed her craft with the renowned Wynn Handman. Her credits include: Lie of the Mind (Michael Checkov Theater Company), Machinal, dir. Dana Dobreva (Wings Theater/Zephyr Rep), I hate Hamlet (LeGacy Production), Strawhead, dir. Marjo-Riikka Makel (Chekhov Studio, LA), The Spring and Fall of Eva Adams, dir. Barbara Kahn (Theater for the New City), Trash Story, dir. Monica Payne (John Jay College), cHIMera dir. Dmitri Barcomi (Criminal Queernes Festival at Lincoln Center), The Books of Jacob dir. Krzysztof Garbaczewski (La MaMa).

Alex Scoloveno (Henry) Alex is a NYC/NJ based actor, writer, and filmmaker. He appeared in a variety of projects such as the Off-Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’, “This Property is Condemned” (2015)  and Alabama Shakespeare Festivals’ world premiere of “Freedom Rider” (2022). Alex graduated from Rutgers: Mason Gross School of the Arts with a BFA in acting. He trained over six months in London, at Shakespeare’s Globe, where he had the privilege of playing Falstaff in, Henry IV Part One on the globe stage. Alex is also the founder of, “Mindful Lion Films” which has won awards in Cannes, Toronto, Tokyo among other international film festivals. Alex most recently makes an appearance in “Westhampton” starring Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story) and RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad).

Jackson Scott (Drunkards/Dignitary/Bishop/Cardinal)  is an actor and musician, born to British parents and raised in rural Spain. On stage, Jackson most recently appeared in renowned Russian theatre director Dmitry Krymov’s Big Trip at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. In Big Trip, Jackson performed in both shows, starring as Eugene Onegin in Eugene Onegin and as The Narrator in Three Love Stories by the Railroad. Previously in New York, he appeared in Sleep No More at the McKittrick Hotel, and in Rainbow Ring and The Wasteland at Casa Clara. On film, Jackson will appear in Gaby Dellal’s upcoming film Park Avenue alongside Fiona Shaw and Katherine Waterston. Other film work includes, Quique for which he won Best Actor at the First Run Film Festival, Beyond the Rave and Bulk Haul.

Kayodè Soyemi (Johnny) is a Nigerian American actor, writer and producer that calls Atlanta, GA his home away from home. He is a graduate of the MFA Acting program at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale where he was producer at the Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, co-leader of FOLKS, Producing Artistic Director at Yale Cabaret, a recipient of the Hoenig Theatre Artist Scholarship, a Connecticut Artist Fellow, a Jerome L. Greene Fellow and an Orchard Project Fellow. He’s an alum of Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Professional Training Company where he was featured in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Pipeline, and the Humana Festival. Other credits include: Passover (Chester Theatre Company) Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Cleveland Playhouse), The Brothers Size (Jubilee Theatre) A Raisin in the Sun (Dallas Theater Center) Father Comes Home from the Wars Parts 1,2 & 3 (Actor’s Express) and Love’s Labours Lost (Atlanta Shakespeare Company). Kayodesoyemi.com IG: @fkaseun