Jennifer McCabe to Direct SEA GLASS at WP Theater This Month

In a collaboration between teacher and former students, Jennifer McCabe (Law and Order) is slated to direct the upcoming production of Sea Glass by Olivia Dennehy-Basile, produced by Lily Mannon of Bitter Maiden Productions. Sea Glass runs August 16 through 30 at WP Theater as part of their Space Program, which provides subsidized space to mission-aligned artists and small budget not-for-profit companies who might otherwise not be able to produce because of the financial constraints of renting performance space.

Director Jennifer McCabe has played over sixty stage roles, originating ten lead characters Off-Broadway at Cherry Lane, Atlantic, Barrow Group, Rattlestick Playwrights, Jane St., Soho Rep/Walkerspace, Epic Theatre. Her work has been met with stellar reviews from The New York Times, Variety, Broadway.com, TimeOut, NY Post and others. In Television, she has recurred and co-starred on NBC: Manifest, Blindspot, Law and Order: SVU, Law and Order: Organized Crime, CBS: FBI: Most Wanted; FX: The Americans. Jennifer has been coaching and teaching actors for over two decades and is an Associate Professor at the City University of New York at Lehman College. She is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU Tisch UGFTV and Drama and is a top director and teacher at Stonestreet Studios where she taught and directed Miles Teller in The Musicians, Rachel Brosnahan, Michael Gandolfini, Camila Mendez, Rachel Matthews and Jack Quaid, among others. She has been a Visiting Professor at SUNY Purchase, The New School for Drama (COPA) for their BFA and MFA in Acting and a Guest Artist at SUNY New Paltz, Vassar.

Olivia Dennehy-Basile and Lily Mannon were students of Jennifer McCabe's at NYU's Stonestreet Studios. McCabe writes, "Olivia reached out for coffee back in January. It was the first time we'd seen or spoken to each other since she studied acting at NYU in 2020, when she took a screen acting class I was teaching. She shared a bit about Sea Glass, how it came to be, and then asked if I'd consider directing it at WP Theater this August. I was surprised and intrigued. When I read the play, I found myself in tears through most of it. I read a lot of plays, but it had been a while since one landed with such force. Sea Glass holds a particular brutality I was drawn to, especially in the context of working with young actors. It felt like a story I wanted to help bring to life and an opportunity to explore pain and complexity through the vessels of emerging artists."

Playwright Olivia Dennehy-Basile is a multi-hyphenate actor, writer, and podcast editor. She is a graduate of NYU Tisch, where she met director Jennifer McCabe as a student at Stonestreet Studios. Previous writing experience includes educational children's TV (Beanstalk.co); acting experience includes Pericles (Pericles) with Hamlet Isn't Dead; All My Sons (Sue Bayliss) with Red Umbrella Theatre Co; and Sunny & Dawn (Sunny) with Spritz Theatre.

Producer Lily Mannon is a NYC-based actor, producer, and theatermaker, and the founder of Bitter Maiden Productions. She is dedicated to bold innovation, artistic reckoning, and collaborative storytelling that centers underrepresented and multigenerational voices. Lily produces School Engagement arts events and programs at 92NY and consults for studios including Disney+, Bryce Dallas Howard's Nine Muses Entertainment, and Ron Howard Feature Films. Recent credits include Sea Glass, Synesthesia, Cabin Pressure, RUR, The Chekhov Project, Snow Bird, and The World Only Spins Forward. She holds a B.F.A. from NYU Tisch and thrives in ensemble-driven work that challenges, heals, and connects.

McCabe continues, "Olivia is deeply intelligent, but what I've always appreciated about her is that she doesn't take herself too seriously," McCabe reflects. "That balance of sharp and light is a combination I gravitate toward. When I learned that Lily, also a former student, was producing, I became even more excited. Lily is a generous spirit, a truly singular person who, to me, moves through the world just slightly above the rest of us."