For Goodness’ Sake – Live on Zoom

PONTEA BANAYAN (Songwriter) was born and raised in LA and writes songs of empowerment, self-love, and relatable experiences of the human condition, showcasing her pop-driven songwriting and vocal abilities. She has performed coast to coast with her multi-form shows featuring sponta- neous beat boxing, piano, and a steel pan drum, all testament to her eclectic flair. Find more informa- tion and links to her music at iampontea.com.

SUSAN BASKIN (Dramaturg) wrote the Academy Award winning Film, Violet, and has written extensively for television and film. Her essays have been published in The Los Angeles Times Magazine and Los Angeles Magazine. Susan has written a number of pieces for JWT including “I, Citizen,” which was commissioned by Jewish Women’s Theatre. She is currently at work on a novel.

JACK BRADLEY (Songwriter) is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer originally from New Orleans. He was raised in Los Angeles, where he currently resides. A mostly self-taught musician, he has composed original music for film, and writes/performs his own original songs. He enjoys the “Three B’s”: breakfast food, banjos, and good books. More of his work can be heard at www.jackbradleymusic.com.

JASMINE CURRY (Actor) trained at New York University, Experimental Theatre Wing, and was a resident actor at Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, PA. She studied improv and sketch writing with The Groundlings Theatre and iO West. Jasmine has worked in educational theatre with Writers Room Productions, California Weekly Explorer, and The Imagination Machine. Most recently she portrayed the Stage Manager in Our Town at Pierce College and will be appearing in Noises Off this May.

SIONNE ELISE (Actor/Songwriter) graduated magna cum laude from UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film, and Television. Apart from today’s show, you’ll see her appear in two upcoming feature films, Killer Cheerleader on the LifeTime Network and Sign Man, hitting the festival circuit in January 2021. Sionne is more than excited to reprise her performance with Jewish Women’s Theatre, telling incredible stories with incredible performers. Thank you and enjoy! IG: @sionneelise

ANDREW FROMER (Assistant Artistic Director) a Los Angeles native, grew up as an active member in the Jewish community through Stephen Wise Temple. He attended Windward School in Mar Vista, where his career as an actor began in the school plays and musicals. After completing his BFA in theater at
UC Santa Barbara and an exciting year of living in Israel, Andrew returned to LA for acting and producing. His TV credits include Never Have I Ever (Netflix) and Anger Management (FX); feature film credits include Highway to Havasu (Billy/Producer) and The Sweet Life (Mike/Assistant to Production). Andrew also edits and directs and is excited to be coordinating this year’s iteration of NEXT @ The Braid, JWT’s Emerging Artists Fellowship. Find out more info at www.jewishwomenstheatre.org/next. Andrew also serves as Teen Engagement Coordinator and Communications Manager for congregation Or Ami in Calabasas.

MICHAEL GABIANO (Actor) NYC Theatre: World premieres of Awaken the Wolves (Spotlight On/ New Village Productions), Steven McElroy, director; The Amaziiing Colossal Thing (Vital Theatre Co.), David Hilder, director. LA Theatre: The Man Who Came to Dinner (Group Rep), Bruce Kimmel, director; Hillary and Monica (Argus Productions), Joel Zwick, director; Reunion (Blackhart Productions), Kay Cole, director; Saturday Night at Grossinger’s (TheatreWest), Susan Morgenstern, director; Naked Christmas (P6/Celebration Theatre), Jonathan Levit, director. Regional: Raft of the Medusa (NJ Repertory Co.), ART, The SantaLand Diaries (Tri-State Actors Theatre), Amadeus (D’ART/ Wilton Playshop), Twelfth Night (Performance Studio). Film: Sam Hu’s Last Day, A 2nd Opinion, Never Say Macbeth. Television: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, General Hospital, Days of our Lives, Sean Saves the World, The Horrible, Terrible Misadventures of David Atkins. Michael holds a BA in theatre from Western Connecticut State University and is represented by MINC Talent.

SUZANNA KAPLAN (Literary Manager) was born in Mexico City and grew up speaking English at home and Spanish everywhere else. Following economic uncertainty, she moved to the US where she partnered with her best friend in a translation service and language school. They did well and, being young, sold it as soon as they could and used the money to travel, eventually winding up in Israel. That trip stretched out to six years, a husband and a baby. Back in the US, Suzanna worked in Hispanic advertising and wrote for Spanish-language TV. Her greatest pleasure these days is writing, producing, and working with the wonderful women of JWT when not caring for the two most marvelous creatures known as grandchildren.

CAROL KIRSH (San Francisco/Bay Area Producer), a social worker by training, worked as an execu- tive search consultant in Hong Kong for eight years before returning to the US where she has volun- teered and served on boards for social services agencies in both San Francisco and Honolulu. Carol produces Jewish Women’s Theatre in the Bay Area, where she hosted its first “at home” salon in San Francisco in 2012.

EVE LEDERMAN (Writer) has told stories on stage in New York at the Players Club, the Bryant Park Reading Room, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage and she will appear at the People’s Improv Theater in New York in May. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times and her book, Letters from My Sister, was published by Skyhorse Publishing and Audible. In 2019, Eve’s play To Life was mounted by Theater for the New City in New York and Nothing But the Truth was produced by Post Productions in Ontario, Canada. Her work has been recognized by the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Association for Theatre in Higher Education/Award of Excellence in Playwriting, the BBC’s International Playwriting Competition, the Princess Grace Award/New Dramatists, and the ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition, among others.

ARLA SORKIN MANSON (Writer) has written numerous television pilots, including Destiny and Me (ABC), Far from Where (ABC), The Shack (ABC), In the Mood (CBS), Loveland (CBS), and Bethany Gibbs (NBC), and has also written for the television series Against the Law (FOX) and Saved (TNT). Her TV-movie credits include The Wedding Dress (CBS) as executive producer, Mind Games (ABC) as writer/executive producer, and Acts of Contrition (CBS) as supervising producer. Arla’s contributions to Broadway theater include being co-producer on Beth Henley’s The Wake of Jamey Foster and production executive on Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy, Tom Dulack’s Solomon’s Child, and the Craig Carnelia musical Is There Life After High School? Arla has served on the board of directors and is currently on the advisory council and the selection committee of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. Arla is an Abby Freeman artist-in-residence for Jewish Women’s Theatre. She dedicates this reading to her husband, David Manson, and her daughter, Lainie Sorkin Becky.

DAVID MASELLO (Writer) is a widely-published essayist, feature writer, poet, and playwright. A longtime magazine editor and writer, having held senior editorial positions at Town & Country, Art & Antiques, Travel & Leisure, and other periodicals, he is currently executive editor of Milieu, a magazine about design. Prior to his magazine work, he was a nonfiction editor at Simon and Schuster and has authored two books about architecture and art. His essays and features have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, including the New York Times and Best American Essays. His plays have been produced by Chelsea Repertory, AND Theatre Company, Manhattan Repertory Theatre, and the National Arts Club. He is an active participant in Read650.org, a live-essay reading series. He teaches a course at Sarah Lawrence College on the subject of writing about art. Although Manhattan is where he lives and works, he comes from Evanston, Illinois, which will always feel like home.

MOLLY M. MURRAY (Writer) is a board-certified physician assistant who practices emergency medicine near Newark, New Jersey, and has a special interest in palliative care. She graduated with a master’s in health sciences from Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York, and a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is also passionate about animal rescue and rehabilitation.

ROBIN URIEL RUSSIN (Writer), a professor of screenwriting and playwriting at UC Riverside, has written, produced, and directed for film, TV, and the theatre. Credits include Warner Bros.’s On Deadly Ground; Fox’s America’s Most Wanted; and ABC’s Vital Signs. He recently directed the indie feature When I Sing, co-starring Chris Mulkey, which won the People’s Choice Award at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival; the Special Jury Award for best low-budget feature film at Worldfest Houston; and Best U.S. Feature and Grand Jury Award at Borderlands Film Festival, among others. The Los Angeles Times found his play, Painted Eggs, “ambitious, heart-felt and hypnotic,” while his The Face in the Reeds had a four-month run at the Ruskin Group Theater. Robin serves as chair of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival’s National Playwriting Program for Region 8 and is co-author with William Missouri Downs of Naked Playwriting and Screenplay: Writing the Picture. A Rhodes Scholar, he has degrees from Harvard, Oxford, RISD, and UCLA, where he received his MFA in screenwriting.

AYSHA WAX (Assistant Director) a writer, director, and comedian, is fun, witty, and unintentionally the loudest person in the room. She loves creating stories that are festive and feminist. Her web series Wannabees, co-created by Marian Bruno, was sold to Fox Digital in 2014. Aysha has also had her sketches featured on Buzzfeed, Funnyordie, Wifey TV, and WhoHaHa and has performed improv and sketch around Los Angeles at iO West, the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Westside Comedy Theater, the Pach Theater, and The Groundlings. Aysha also spent eight years teaching Hebrew school around Los Angeles, which inspired her one-woman show, Hebrew School Horror, which she toured around LA and NYC. She just completed her first short film, Grief Vigilantes, which she wrote and directed. When not creating things, Aysha moonlights as a dating consultant with her partner, Rebecca Leib. Their dating classes are known as “Feeling It” dating. Aysha can help you level up dating wise while enjoying the process and maybe finding a partner. She’s here to make your life a little better and more fun!