Cast Set for Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA at BEDLAM

New York Theatre Company BEDLAM will present ARCADIA By Tom Stoppard this fall, off-Broadway at the West End Theater (263 W 86th Street).  Directed by Eric Tucker (BEDLAM Artistic Director), ARCADIA begins previews on October 27, 2023. The strictly limited 5-week engagement opens on November 12, 2023.

Joining the cast are Alan Altschuler, Lisa Birnbaum, Shaun Taylor Corbett, Caroline Grogan, Deychen Volino-Gyetsa, Mike Labbadia, Arash Mokhtar, Randolph Curtis Rand, Jamie “Smitty” Smithson, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Devin Vega and Elan Zafir.

 Tom Stoppard’s absorbing play takes us back and forth between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life - 'the attraction which Newton left out’.

 BEDLAM’s production of ARCADIA has scenic design by John McDermott, costume design by Charlotte Palmer-Lane, lighting design by Les Dickert, with props by Buffy Cardoza.

 Tickets for previews of ARCADIA from October 28 to November 11 range from $60-$80. Tickets for regular performances of ARCADIA from November 12 to December 3 range from $80-$100. In addition to providing free and reduced-price tickets to underserved communities and educational programs, BEDLAM's ongoing Access Ticket Initiative will include a “Pay What You Can” performance for the first preview of ARCADIA on Friday, October 27th. All seats for that performance are a minimum of $20. BEDLAM’s existing ticket accessibility efforts include $10 Rush Tickets available to all students, Veterans, and current service members starting thirty minutes prior to every performance. For tickets and the full schedule, visit bedlam.org.

 In 2022, BEDLAM celebrated its tenth anniversary. What has remained consistent in all their work – be it Shakespeare, Shaw, or Austen; in a theatre, a classroom, or online – is the belief that the classics are for everyone, and that exploring these traditional forms yields unique insights into our humanity and inspires empathy in us all. BEDLAM looks forward to celebrating this belief in practice over the course of its eleventh season.

 

BIOS

 

Alan Altschuler

is excited to once again be part of a Bedlam production. He most recently played Francis Nurse in Bedlam’s hit Off-Broadway production ofThe Crucible.  Other favorite NYC stage roles include Hamlet (Polonius); A Lie of the Mind (Baylor); A Midsummer Night’s (Oberon); Ghosts (Pastor Manders); Festen (Helge), Crazy Lady of  Chaillot (The President); Uncle Vanya (Serebryakov); The Seagull (Dr. Dorn); Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Rev. Samuel Gardner); Macbeth (King Duncan); and Rhinoceros (Botard). He also wrote and performed his solo show, “Bigfoot Stole My Wife.” Film performances include roles in Performance; Off Hour; Worry Dolls and Early Release, and TV roles on Law and Order: SVU and The Onion News Network. Alan is a founding board member of the Bedlam Theatre Company.  He is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. Check out Alan’s website:www.alanaltschuler.com.

 

Lisa Birnbaum

is thrilled to be a part of Arcadia! Other Bedlam credits include The Winters Tale, Hedda Gabler, Bedlam: The Series, King Lear (Bristol Riverside Theatre), and the Helen Hayes award winning production of Sense & Sensibility (Folger Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage). Other recent theatrical credits include Off Broadway NY theatre: The White Devil (Red Bull), Other Than We, F#%king Up Everything (Now titled Brooklyn Crush), Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party, and Lizzie Borden (now titled LIZZIE). Other Regional credits include Elizabeth Taylor in Cleo (Alley Theatre dir. Bob Balaban), Lysistrata (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (PlayMakers Repertory Company), Italian American Reconciliation (Long Wharf Theatre), The Cry of the Reed (Huntington Theatre Company), The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Romeo and Juliet and Anything Goes (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and All’s Well That Ends Well (Yale Repertory Theatre). TV/Film Credits include Battle Rattle, Bedlam: The Series, Two Black Dudes, Madam Secretary, Evil, Deception, Law & Order, What Would You Do?, and Guiding Light. Lisa holds a B.A. in Theatre from Tufts University and an M.F.A. from the artist formerly known as Yale School of Drama (The David Geffen School of Drama). Find her every blue moon on instagram @liserbeth.

 

Shaun Taylor Corbett

has had the absolute privilege to work on some of his favorite projects with Bedlam, including The Winter’s Tale (Autolycus/Antigonus), The Crucible (Cheever), Mary Stuart (Earl of Leicester), Bedlam: the Series (Slender). From 2017 to 2019 he was an acting company member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, a special artistic home where he played some of his favorite roles in Henry V, As You Like It, Off the Rails, Between Two Knees, Loves Labor’s Lost and Beauty and the Beast directed by the one and only Eric Tucker. Shaun was in the original production of In the Heights on Broadway and closed the show in the role of Sonny, which he also played in the First National Tour. He starred as Frankie Valli in the 2nd National Tour of Jersey Boys, and Juan in Altar Boyz Off-Broadway. He is excited to continue his journey with the hit show Between Two Knees (written by the 1491s, creator/writers of Reservation Dogs/Rutherford Falls and directed by Eric Ting), coming to the Perelman in NYC under Bill Rauch in February of 2024. Shaun’s original Indigenous musical, Distant Thunder, co-written with the legendary Lynne Taylor-Corbett and writing partner Chris Wiseman received its first production in March, 2022 with Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma at the First Americans Museum and will continue development in Calgary with Making Treaty 7 and Theater Calgary next June (www.distantthunderthemusical.com). The show is based on Shaun’s deep connection with his Blackfeet community in Browning, MT. You can hear Shaun’s voice as “Coyote” on the Netflix animated series “Spirit Rangers,” created by Karissa Valencia. For narration, please check out his audible page. TV/Film: Hi-5, Supremacy, Gamer’s Guide, All My Children.

 

Caroline Grogan

is a New York-based actor, voice-over narrator, and teaching artist. Her most recent theater credits include Bedlam: Persuasion, The Crucible (Boston & NY), SOCIETY’s Beginning Days of True Jubilation and The Strangers Came Today. Television credits include FBI: Most Wanted and Bedlam: The Series. In addition to performing, Caroline is the Education Director & Social Media Manager for Bedlam Theatre Company, Executive Artistic Director of the arts nonprofit, Zara Aina (zaraaina.org), and she runs her own classes for kids in NYC. Caroline is a clown passionate about exploring art with young people! She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. http://www.caroline-grogan

 

Deychen Volino-Gyetsa

grew up in NYC and is thrilled to be making her off-Broadway debut with Bedlam Theatre Company. Recent Credits: Flowers of Hawaii (Chautauqua Theater Company), Much Ado About Nothing (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Summer’s Soldier (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Lear, Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Pride and Prejudice (Texas Shakespeare Festival). Education: Juilliard School of Music, UNCSA School of Drama.

 

Mike Labbadia

is a New York based actor. Off-Broadway: Winter's Tale, Hedda Gabler (Bedlam), Strictly Dishonorable (Attic Theater Company). Regional Theater: Saint Joan (Gulfshore Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Hamlet (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), The 39 Steps (Gulfshore Playhouse), Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare on the Water), Higher (Gulfshore Playhouse), Saturday Sunday Monday (Virginia Rep). As a producer and filmmaker his work has been screened on Short of the Week and at festivals like Bushwick Film Festival, Women in Horror, Oaxaca Film Festival and Picture Farm Film Festival, Big Apple Film Festival and Miami Web Fest. BFA, UNCSA. @mlabbadee

 

Arash Mokhtar

Off-Broadway: The Crucible, The Connelly Theater; Hamlet, The Sheen Center. Additional Credits, NYC (selected): Rhinoceros, Richard III, Coriolanus, Broadway Bound, The Servant of Two Masters, An Ideal Husband, Killer Joe, Closer, and Hurlyburly. Regional (selected): The Corpse Washer (by Naomi Wallace & Ismail Khalidi), 2019 Humana Festival of New American Plays, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville; The Humans, Pittsburgh Public Theatre; Disgraced, Coachella Valley Rep (nom. Best Lead Actor in a Drama, Desert Star Awards, CA.); Sinners, (dir. Brian Cox), Mirror Rep; Kiss of the Spider Woman, Richmond Triangle Players. Film (selected): Sanctioning Evil; Black Site Delta; Day 39 (Finalist, 42nd Annual Student Academy Awards, 2015); Benji the Dove; Chosen (opposite Cathy Moriarty); Best Man in the Dark. TV: “Power Book III: Raising Kanan”, “Law & Order”, “FBI”, “New Amsterdam”, “Ramy”, “The Blacklist”, “Instinct”, “Madam Secretary”, “Forever”, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”, “Elementary”, “Believe”, “Zero Hour”, “Person of Interest”, among others. www.arashmokhtar.com

 

Randolph Curtis Rand

is an OBIE award winning theatre artist from Brooklyn. Previously for BEDLAM: Uncle/Romeo/Vanya/Juliet, The Crucible. Randolph played the lead in Actors Theatre of Louisville’ s annual production of Dracula for 7 seasons. Other theaters, companies and artists; Burning Coal (NC), Elevator Repair Service, Richard Foreman, Meredith Monk, Orland Shakespeare Theatre, Pig Iron, The Public Theatre, The Rude Mechs, and The Wooster Group, to name a few. TV; FBI: Most wanted, Law and Order: Organized Crime. Film: Fresh Kill (Shu Lea Cheang Dir.), State Property, Diamond Souls.

 

Jamie Smithson

Off -Broadway: Fall River Fishing and Persuasion (Bedlam), Romeo and Juliet, Comedy of Errors (The Acting Company/Pace). Regionally he has worked with Bedlam at American Repertory Theater, Portland Centerstage and the Folger Theatre as Edward and Robert Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility; (Helen Hayes Nomination - Best Actor). As a Washington DC actor, some of his favorites include: Newsies (Arena Stage), Cake Off (Signature Theatre), The Wanderers (East Coast premiere -Theater J), Boeing Boeing (No Rules), Twist your Dickens (The Kennedy Center, The Second City) and Fly By Night (1st Stage, Helen Hayes Nomination - Best Actor). Other theaters include Shakespeare Theater Company,  Mosaic Theatre, Ford's, Imagination Stage, Roundhouse Theatre, Everyman, and The Guthrie, among others. Jamie received his MFA in acting at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.   

 

Zuzanna Szadkowski 

is best known for playing Dorota in the CW’s “Gossip Girl.” Currently, she can be seen in "The Gilded Age" on HBO and in “Three Women” on Starz. Other television credits include “Bull,” “Search Party,” "The Knick," “The Good Wife,” “Elementary,” “Girls,” “Guiding Light,”  and “The Sopranos.” Film credits include “Worth,” “Minyan,” and “Loserville.” Theatre credits include Fall River Fishing, Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet (WSJ Performance of the Year 2018), The Crucible and Peter Pan with Bedlam, queens at LCT3, The Comedy of Errors as part of The Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit, King Philip’s Head… with Clubbed Thumb, Love, Loss and What I Wore on Off-Broadway, The 39 Steps at ATL, and The Merry Wives of Windsor at Two River Theater. Zuzanna is also a writer and has been published in The New York Times and Alien Nation.

 

Eric Tucker

Wall Street Journal DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR 2014/2021. Off-Broadway: Fall River Fishing; Hedda Gabler; The Winter’s Tale; Persuasion; The Crucible; Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet; Pygmalion; Peter Pan; Vanity Fair; Bedlam’s Sense and Sensibility (Off-Broadway Alliance Award, Lortel nom, Best Director, Drama League nom, Best Revival, 4 Helen Hayes awards including Best Director and Best Production); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Drama League nom Best Revival, WSJ Best Classical Production 2015); Bedlam’s Saint Joan (NY Times/Time Magazine top 10; Off-Broadway Alliance Best Revival 2014); Bedlam’s Hamlet (NY Times top 10); Tina Packer’s Women of Will; New York Animals (World Premiere by Steven Sater/Burt Bacharach), Twelfth Night and What You Will (NYT Critic’s Picks); The Seagull (WSJ Best Classical Production 2014). Other: Caesar and Cleopatra (ASC); The Rivals (BRT); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Two River), Disney’s Beauty & The Beast (OSF); Pericles (APT, WSJ Best Classical Production 2017); Copenhagen (Central Square Theatre), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (HVSF), Mate (The Actors’ Gang).

 

Devin Vega

was born in Manhattan, to Joanne Vega, an HR Representative, and Danny Vega, a Truck Driver. His mother and father are both of Puerto Rican descent from Brooklyn, New York. Devin is the third born of four children; he has two sisters and one brother. He was raised in Queens, New York and grew up in a working-class family. He attended the Wagner School of Arts and Technology, where he was introduced to film and theatre, and later attended The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts where he received an Associate's Degree in Occupational Studies for Film and Television Performance. Upon graduation, he’s since signed with Take3Talent Agency, booked guest starring roles on TV shows such as FBI and Law & Order, became a SAG member, and booked a Co-Starring role in a Short Film that premiered and went on to win Best Drama Short at Astoria Film Festival and Best Direction at Manhattan Film Festival.

 

Elan Zafir

(he/him) is an actor and playwright based in New York. His acclaimed solo play The Unaccompanied Minor was presented at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and subsequently produced at the Capital Fringe in Washington, DC. He has performed in God of Carnage (Milwaukee Rep); Hedda Gabler/The Winter's Tale in repertory with Bedlam; There's Always the Hudson (Woolly Mammoth Theatre); King John and Theresa Rebeck’s Way of the World (Folger Theatre); Junk (Arena Stage); Everybody, Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Salomé (Shakespeare Theatre Company); Twelve Angry Men, Ragtime (Ford’s Theatre); The Vagrant Trilogy, Eureka Day, Paper Dolls (Mosaic Theatre); Jumanji (Adventure Theatre); Tender Napalm (Signature Theatre); Venus in Fur (Rep Stage). He played Falstaff in Bedlam: The Series, and has appeared on television in such shows as House of Cards, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, and FBI: International, and Law & Order. elanzafir.net