The Wickham Way at Hackensack Performing Arts Center

Jennifer DeCelles

Jennifer is very glad to be appearing in her first production with Teaneck New Theatre and originating the role of Liza. Past credits include Pippin! (Fastrada, CBP), Twelfth Night (Olivia, OLT), Much Ado About Nothing (Balthazar, NLT), Steel Magnolias (Truvy, CBP), and Dracula (Mina, Rhino). Many thanks to the cast and crew for their work and dedication, Lisa for her hours of help with the fabulous music, and thanks to my loving husband for his support, encouragement, and hours of help with memorization!

John Fraissinet

John is pleased to be returning to the stage after directing TNT’s “The Farnsworth Invention” in June. He has performed in more than 30 shows in Northern NJ. Some favorite roles have been Robert in "Boeing Boeing", Avram in "Fiddler on the Roof", Charlie in "August: Osage County", the Emperor in "New Clothes for the Emperor", the Snail in "A Year with Frog and Toad", Krojack in "Don't Drink the Water", Gage Holland in "Clark Gable Slept Here", the Magistrate in "Fools" (Perry nomination), Richard in "Fuddy Meers", Emil in "Three Viewings", Frank Heller in "Rehearsal for Murder" plus many virtual productions. Love to talented, beautiful Donna.

Jess Hope Katz

Jess is extremely excited to be participating in her first production with the Teaneck New Theatre and originating the role of Marti! Favorite credits include Damn Yankees (Gloria Thorpe), Brighton Beach Memoirs (Kate Jerome), Working, the Musical (Grace/Millworker), Title of Show (Susan), 1776: The Women's Congress (Offbook Productions Richard Henry Lee), A New Brain (Mimi Schwinn). Thanks to the wonderful production team and this awesome cast! Thank you to Rachel and Arlene for believing in me and trusting me with Marti. With Gratitude!

Brooke Kaye

Brooke is excited to be part of the premiere of The Wickham Way. She is an actress/singer who has been entertaining local audiences for the last seven years, appearing in various plays, one-acts, tv/film, musicals and music revues. Some credits include: Play On!, We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia!, Always a Bridesmaid, Shrek the Musical, The Wizard of Oz, One Act Jamboree, Freckleface Strawberry, Disaster!, Motherhood Out Loud and Willy Wonka.

Deke Stoklosa

Deke is a native NYer who works for the fashion brand Desigual as the Head of Retail & Wholesale for North America. He has been a member of Edith O’Hara 13th Street Repertory Company (where he played Dolan in the longest running off off Broadway hit LINE), scored a “best actor” nom in his role in the Think Fast One Act Play Festival, & won a TANY award for one of his set designs. Deke has been in over 45 stage productions in the North East and can be seen on MTV’s “The City”. He was last seen around NJ in RENT at BAC (Gordon, The Man & Others) and in the Summit Playhouse production of Death By Design (Eric). Past favorite credits: Ryan in HSM2 Live, Victor in Cabaret, Tyrone in Fame, Gregorio in My Big Gay Italian Wedding, Egon Schiele in Organic Movement, Joe Farkas in Last Night Ballyhoo, Chuck Cranston in Footloose, Greg in A Chorus Line & Eugene in Grease. @Dekestok

Rachel Rubin Ladutke

Rachel Rubin Ladutke is a produced and published playwright living in New Jersey. Her works include 8 full-length plays, 3 musicals, and numerous shorter pieces. Excerpts from several of her plays appear in monologue and scene anthologies. Rachel attended Wheaton College and spent a semester at the National Theater Institute. She holds an M.A. in Theater from Hunter College/C.U.N.Y. She served as the Editor of InSight For Playwrights, a monthly marketing newsletter, from 2003 to 2014. She recently rejoined the Board of the International Centre for Women Playwrights. She is also a member of the Dramatists' Guild, the National Play Exchange, and the Playwrights' Center. During the pandemic, Rachel became deeply involved in virtual theatre, presenting readings of works by Brian Friel, Eugene O'Neill, and Tony Kushner. She also developed three new plays through Zoom workshopping, of which The Wickham Way was the first. Wickham was one of 20 plays chosen from nearly 700 entries) for the New Works Virtual Festival, a series of celebrity play readings to benefit The Actors' Fund. Throughout 2022, Rachel is coordinating 46 evenings of virtual readings of new plays by female+ playwrights. States of Play will present plays set in each of the 50 United States, as well as D.C. and Puerto Rico. She also participated in a nationwide event, #Enough2022, in which the same program of short plays about gun violence, all written by teenage playwrights, was presented simultaneously on April 20th (the anniversary of Columbine). The Wickham Way is the first part of a trilogy. The second play, The Way Forward, will have its premiere staged reading this fall. Rachel is currently working on the third installment, The Way Home. While Zoom theatre has been an absolute blessing, Rachel is over the moon that The Wickham Way is premiering at TNT. Special thanks to my dear friend Jess for being a champion of this play. Love and "all the luck" to the cast and creative team of The Wickham Way...you are the best allies a playwright could wish for! www.RachelWrites67.wixsite.com/website

Arlene Schulman

As Director for this very first onstage production of The Wickham Way, Arlene is thrilled to be working with Teaneck New Theatre. A theatre artist for over forty years in both professional and community theatre, she has directed everything from Hamlet and Othello to Fiddler On The Roof, The Lion In Winter, and Rumors. With a passion for collaboration and new play development, she has partnered with playwright Rachel Rubin Ladutke, as Dramaturg/ Director-in-development, for at least half a dozen original plays over more than twenty years. The Wickham Way has been a labor of love since the beginning, and working with this fabulous cast and crew to bring it to life is pure joy.

Lisa Brigantino

Lisa is an award-winning composer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist working in a variety of genres and styles and composes music for film, television, theater and more. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music in music theory and music composition from the School of Music at the State University of New York College at Fredonia. Most recently, Lisa composed and performed music for a production of Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s play “An Iliad” which had a three week run at Shaker Bridge Theatre in Enfield, New Hampshire. Lisa has also worked in the business side of the industry for years providing music supervision, licensing, rights clearance and consulting services to creatives and producers of all kinds via her company, Hidden Pond Productions, Inc. Lisa’s commercially released albums and singles have received critical acclaim and ‘Round Magazine says of her latest album I’ll Waltz Before I Go, "Nearly every track is a standout…This is a stunner of an album.” John Sobel of Blog Critics says “Lisa Brigantino is what you’d call a complete musician—a superb multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and not least, rocker. Brigantino brings to her songwriting that real sense of melody that so many putative writers lack.” Lisa was an original member of Lez Zeppelin, the world’s first all girl Led Zeppelin tribute band and toured internationally with the band playing bass, bass pedals, mandolin and keyboards and doing backing vocals at A list venues and festivals around the world including Bonnaroo (US), Rock am Ring/Rock am Park (Germany), Download (UK). She left the band in 2009 to focus on her original music. These days, Lisa often performs her original songs live with her sister Lori Brigantino. The two also have a quirky, musical-comedy act called “The Vickie & Nickie Show.” For more information, please visit: https://lisabrigantino.com/, https://hiddenpondproductions.com/ and https://vickieandnickie.com/

Beatriz Esteban-Messina

Beatriz was an arts educator and high school principal for 40 years. Since retiring in 2011, she has worked on over 60 shows both on and off stage. In 2018, she received an NJACT Perry Award for “direction of an original play,” Pets & Their Humans. Additionally, she has been nominated for “best featured actress” in Moon Over Buffalo & To Kill a Mockingbird, and for directing 'Night Mother. Beatriz is president of Teaneck New Theatre, and a board member with Nutley Little Theatre and with Hudson Theatre Works where she also runs their Children's Stage Project. She welcomes this amazing cast & crew to the TNT family, and hopes you will enjoy Rachel's beautiful play which reminds us that "love is love.".

Lisa Geerhart

Lisa has enjoyed stage managing Silent Sky (Sussex Community College), Commons of Pensacola (Nutley Little Theatre), Fox in the Fairway (NLT), The Receptionist (Studio Theatre), Anna and the Tropics (NLT) . She is delighted to be stage managing this amazing piece! Lisa lives in Newton with her very patient husband, son and cat.

Marisa Dolkart

Marisa is so excited to be working again with Teaneck New Theater after appearing in their most recent production in June, The Farnsworth Invention. A stage manager and performer as well as a costumer, she has worked with Bergen County Players, The Players Guild of Leonia, Studio Players, Elmwood Playhouse, The Living Room Collective and States of Play, Marisa has costumed and dressed over 2 dozen shows in the North Jersey area, her favorites include The Drowsy Chaperone, The Man Who Came to Dinner (Perry Award Nominee), Enchanted April, A Midsummer Nights's Dream and Curtains. She thanks Arlene and Rachel for this opportunity, and is proud to be working side by side with this talented cast.

John Peter Phillip

Originally from the fabulously creative world of New Orleans, John Peter wowed crowds from Mardi Gras parades to political conventions with his spectacular neon lighting designs. Thanks to Hurricane Katrina and the helping hand of fate, he now, much to his surprise, finds himself living in New Jersey where his life-long love of theatre finally found expression. John Peter has assisted director Arlene Schulman for the last several years with shows ranging from Othello to Sylvia. He is excited to be working with TNT and this great cast and crew.