Lemml

Benny Zelkowicz

Benny Zelkowicz is thrilled to make his CATCO debut. He is an animator (The LEGO Movie, Robot Chicken), voice actor (Lunar Jim, BBC/CBC), and novelist (The Books of Ore Trilogy published by Disney-Hyperion), whose award-winning sand-animated film “The ErlKing” showed at Lincoln Center and Sundance. He is working on an animated documentary,  has published two neuroscience papers in a major journal, and once parallel parked a 22-foot lime green fire truck. Recent roles include Plaza Suite (Jesse Kiplinger, Gallery Players 2022), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder ( Ensemble, Gallery 2019),  and Oliver! (Bill Sikes, Gallery 2017).

Chana

Becky Keeshin

Becky Keeshin – CHICAGO: ShakesFest! (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre) Fiddler on the Roof (Lyric Opera of Chicago) Nunsense, Chicago Sings Sondheim, New Faces Sing Broadway NOW (Porchlight Music Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shrew’d (First Folio Theatre); 33 to Nothing, Killing Game (A Red Orchid Theatre), Junie B. Jones (Marriott Theatre); A Little Night Music (Writers Theatre). REGIONAL: Mockingbird, Tuck Everlasting, Auntie Claus (Nashville Children’s Theatre). EDUCATION: BFA in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University. WORKSHOPS: San Diego Repertory Theatre, 11th Hour Theatre Company, American Theater Company. Represented by DDO Artists Agency and proud member of AEA. Love to the bubs!

Avram

Ben Tracy

Ben Tracy is thrilled to be returning to the CATCO stage. Previous credits include: CATCO Theatre (Gross Indecency, Baskerville, Cowgirls Don’t Ride Zebras, Anne of Green Gables) Hippodrome Theatre (Let the Right One In, A Christmas Carol), West Virginia Public Theatre (Peter and the Starcatcher), Old Log Theatre (Charlotte’s Web), amongst others. As a writer, his short play One Cow Mooing was the Audience Choice Winner (2016) for the Theatre Oxford National Ten Minute Play Contest, and his full length play Disingenuous – a Cock (and Bull) Story was a Semifinalist (2021) for the Garry Marshall New Works Festival. Ben received his BFA in Acting from Wright State University.

Halina

Cassandra Bissell

Cassandra Bissell is delighted to work on this beautiful play with CATCO. Regional (LORT) credits: Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, Cleveland Play House, Court Theatre, Great Lakes Theater, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory, Milwaukee Repertory, Northern Stage, Northlight Theatre, People’s Light, and the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Chicago (CAT) credits: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, First Folio, Rivendell Theatre and Steppenwolf. Small Professional Theatre (SPT) credits: Company of Fools (Hailey, ID), Forward Theater (Madison, WI), freeFall Theatre (St. Petersburg, FL), Next Act Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks (Milwaukee, WI) and Third Avenue Playworks (Sturgeon Bay, WI.) Nine seasons with Peninsula Players (CORST contract) in Door Co., WI. Cassandra holds a BA in Gender Studies from the University of Chicago.

Mendel

Ryan Bernstein

Ryan is thrilled and honored to be making his CATCO debut with this beautiful production.  Favorite credits include: The Drowsy Chaperone (Robert), West Side Story (Riff), Newsies (Race), The Wedding Singer (Sammy), Young Frankenstein (Igor), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Leaf Coneybear), and Bare: A Pop Opera (Jason).  All the love to Mom, Dad, Aly, Jason and his friends for their constant support.  And a huge thanks to Leda, Allan, Tony and the rest of the CATCO team for allowing him this incredible opportunity! Instagram: @itsberniebaby 

Vera

Anne McEvoy

Anne McEvoy (Vera/ensemble) Anne is grateful to be making her CATCO stage debut with this beautiful work by Paula Vogel. A Cleveland-based actor and director, Anne has worked extensively over the years at The Beck Center, the Cleveland Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, Dobama, Ensemble Theatre, Karamu, None Too Fragile, Ohio Shakespeare Festival, and Seat of the Pants. Special thanks to Laura and Paul for the temporary housing!

Otto

Phillip Wells

Phillip joins the cast of Indecent in his first role with CATCO. He most recently appeared in Murder on the Orient Express (LTOB); The Sound of Music (Westerville Civic Theatre); and Present Laughter (Curtain Players). He has also performed featured roles in Side Show, Ragtime, Guy & Dolls, Les Miserables, Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Gallery Players); Hello, Dolly! (OU-Lancaster); Kiss Me, Kate (Northland Performing Arts Center); and The Importance of Being Earnest (Curtain Players), among others. Phil thanks his family and friends for their support in his belief that life is a banquet! L’chaim!

Director

Leda Hoffmann

Leda Hoffmann (She/Her/Hers) is in her third season as CATCO’s Artistic Director. CATCO directing credits include Head Over Heels, Mr Burns: a post-electric play, An Iliad, the reading of George and the Hidden Dragon, and the virtual production of A Columbus Christmas Carol.  Previously, Leda was Artistic Director at Strawdog Theatre Company in Chicago. Before that, Leda served on Milwaukee Rep’s artistic staff for seven years, working in the Education and Literary departments and founding Milwaukee Rep’s Community Engagement Department. Also in Milwaukee, as the Artistic Director of Luminous Theatre, Leda produced and directed site-specific productions of Mr. Burns: a post-electric play and The Penelopiad. Leda’s work as a director has been seen across the country at Milwaukee Rep, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Texas Shakespeare Festival, University of Miami, Door Shakespeare, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, Jedlicka Performing Arts Center, Northbrook Theatre, The Alchemist Theatre, Max and Louie Productions, and Riverside Theater Iowa City. Leda has also been a teaching artist for over ten years, directing youth and teaching with Hartford Stage, Milwaukee Rep, Mudlark Theater, Northbrook Park District, and Skyline Studios. Leda is a proud graduate of Grinnell College, a former Milwaukee Rep directing resident, Hartford Stage apprentice, SDCF Observer and a member of Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. www.ledahoffmann.com

Playwright

Paula Vogel

PAULA VOGEL is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose plays include INDECENT (Tony Award for Best Play), HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE (Broadway production set for spring 2020; Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Lortel Prize, OBIE Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Awards for Best Play), THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME, THE MINEOLA TWINS, THE BALTIMORE WALTZ, HOT’N’THROBBING, DESDEMONA, AND BABY MAKES SEVEN, THE OLDEST PROFESSION and A CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS.

Her plays have been produced by Second Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, the Vineyard Theatre, Roundabout, and Circle Repertory Company, Center Stage, Intiman, Trinity Repertory, Woolly Mammoth, Huntington Theatre, Magic Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theatre Berkeley Repertory, and Alley Theatres to name a few.  Harrogate Theatre and the Donmar Theatre have produced her work in England.

Internationally, he plays have been produced in in English in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand and in translation in Italy, Germany, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia, Romania, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland Slovenia, Canada, Portugal, France, Greece, Japanese, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil and many other countries.

John Simon once remarked that Paula Vogel had more awards than a “black sofa collects lint.”  Honors include induction in the American Theatre Hall of Fame, the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Lily Award, the Thornton Wilder Prize, the Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the William Inge Award, the Elliott Norton Award, a Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the PEN/Laura Pels Award, a TCG Residency Award, a Guggenheim, a Pew Charitable Trust Award, and fellowships and residencies at Sundance Theatre Lab, Hedgebrook, The Rockefeller Center’s Bellagio Center, Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, and the Bunting.

She is particularly proud of her Thirtini Award from 13P, and honored by three Awards in her name: the Paula Vogel Award for playwrights given by The Vineyard Theatre, the Paula Vogel Award from the American College Theatre Festival, and the Paula Vogel mentorship program, curated by Quiara Hudes and Young Playwrights of Philadelphia.

Paula was playwright in residence at The Signature Theatre (2004-05 season), and Theatre Communications Group publishes six volumes of her work. Paula continues her playwriting intensives with community organizations, students, theater companies, subscribers and writers across the globe. She is the 2019 inaugural UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Hearst Theater Lab Initiative Distinguished Playwright-in-Residence and has recently taught at Sewanee, Shanghai Theatre Academy and Nanjing University, University of Texas at Austin, and the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis.  From 1984 to 2008, Paula Vogel founded and ran the playwriting program at Brown University; during that time she started a theatre workshop for women in Maximum Security at the Adults Correction Institute in Cranston, Rhode Island. It continues to this day, sponsored by the Pembroke Center for Women at Brown University.  From 2008-2012, she was the O’Neill Chair at Yale School of Drama.

PaulaVogelPlaywright.com