Meet the artists

Joan Didion (Playwright) was born in California, is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and spent her adult life in New York and Los Angeles. Winner of the 2005 National Book Award, The Year of Magical Thinking is one of 13 books by Joan Didion. Her other books include Play It As It Lays, Democracy, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, Salvador, Miami and Political Fictions. With her husband, John Gregory Dunne, she wrote the screenplays for such pictures as The Panic in Needle Park with Al Pacino, True Confessions with Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall, A Star Is Born with Barbra Streisand and Up Close & Personal with Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford. She was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which awarded her its 2005 Gold Medal in nonfiction. She also received the 1996 Edward MacDowell Medal, the 1999 Columbia Journalism Award and the 2002 George Polk Book Award. She contributed to various periodicals, most frequently The New York Review of Books. 

Jonathan Silverstein (Director) As Keen Company Artistic Director: This Space Between Us, Hear/Now: LIVE!, 1993, Molly Sweeney, Ordinary Days, Later Life, Lonely Planet, When It’s You, Tick, Tick…Boom!, Travels With My Aunt, John & Jen, Middle of the Night, The Film Society, The  Old Boy, Marry Me a Little. Also with  Keen: Lemon Sky, The Dining Room (Drama Desk Award: Outstanding  Ensemble), I Never Sang For My Father, Tea and Sympathy, and The Hasty Heart. Selected Off-Broadway: The Temperamentals (Drama Desk Award: Outstanding Ensemble), Red Herring (FringeNYC; Outstanding Direction Award), Blueprint (Summer Play  Festival), and The Train Play (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: Bucks County, Huntington, Old Globe, Cleveland  Play House, Merrimack Rep, Dorset Theatre Festival, Cape Rep Theatre. Alumnus, The Drama League Directors Project. MFA, UCSD. Member, SDC. 

Kathleen Chalfant (Joan Didion) In a career spanning more than five decades, Kathleen Chalfant’s performances on stage, screen and television have garnered her praise and acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Perhaps best known for her shattering portrayal of Vivian Bearing, a scholar battling cancer, in Wit, she received the Obie, the Drama Desk, the Lucille Lortel, the Outer Critics Circle, the Ovation, Connecticut Critics Circle, the Garland and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for her work. BROADWAY: Angels in America (Tony and Drama Desk nom.), Racing Demon, Dance With Me. OFF-BROADWAY: A Woman of the World, Wit (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Connecticut Critics Circle, Obie Awards), For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, A Walk in the Woods (Drama Desk nom.), Tales from Red Vienna, Miss Ovington & Dr. Dubois, Talking Heads (Obie Award), Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Nine Armenians (Drama Desk nomination), Henry V (Callaway Award). 

Jennifer Paar (Costume Designer) The Year of Magical Thinking marks Jennifer’s 17th production with Keen Company, having first designed costumes for Alphabetical Order in 2010. Other New York credits include: The Oracle, Transatlantica (Operating Theater), ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Toy Box Theatre Company), Futurity, The Musical with The Lisps (Joe’s Pub), Every Day Above Ground with SaBooge Theatre (PS 122) and Thrill Me (York Theatre). Regional credits include: The Fantasticks (Cape Playhouse), The Tempest, Elizabeth Rex, Much Ado about Nothing (Opera House Arts), On Golden Pond (Bucks County Playhouse), Glengarry Glen Ross (Asolo Rep), and Rabbit Hole (Premiere Stages). Jennifer regularly teaches and designs at Actors Studio Drama School, Ramapo College in NJ, and Kingsborough Community College. She is also the Co-Founder of The Costume Studio, a non-profit organization that provides space and supplies for costume designers working on non-profit productions in NYC. For more information visit jenniferpaar.com or thecostumestudionyc.org.

Anshuman Bhatia (Lighting Designer) Previously for Keen; Ordinary Days, Lonely Planet, Molly Sweeney. His design’s for Opera, Theater, and Dance have been seen at Santa Fe Opera, Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Dublin’s Civic Theater, The McKittrick Hotel, Soho Rep, The Public, The Atlantic, Arena Stage in Washington D.C., The Park Avenue Armory, Bard Music Festival, WP Theater, The Juilliard School, Madison Opera, Kentucky Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Omaha, Writers Theater, Classic Stage Company, HERE Arts Center, LoftOpera, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Opera San Jose, Pacific Symphony, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Virginia Arts Festival,. M.F.A. NYU. www.bhatiadesign.com

Reed Ridgley (General Manager) has been managing nonprofit theatre companies in NYC since 2000. He spent most of that time at the Vineyard Theatre where he eventually worked as the General Manager for five years. He served as General Manager at Classic Stage Company for one year, Development Manager for the Cherry Lane Theatre for three years, and is currently working his fourth season as General Manager at Keen. General management highlights include The Scottsboro Boys (world premiere), [title of show] (world premiere), Avenue Q (Vineyard Theatre),The Book of Mormon (first workshops), Carrie (Off Broadway premiere), Wig Out! by Tarell Alvin McCraney (world premiere), The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel (world premiere), The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island (world premiere), and God’s Ear by Jenny Schwartz (world premiere). A graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Reed also is a proud member of the teaching staff at ModoYoga NYC.

Arthur Atkinson (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to return to Keen Company! Traveled this fall to Tottori, Japan for the Bird Theatre Festival with Theatre Breaking Through Barriers’ production of BRECHT ON BRECHT. Recent NYC theatre productions: Liz Swados’s Nightclub Cantata at the Cell Theatre, The Daughter-in-Law at City Center (Mint Theater), Paradise Lost (FPA), Cagney - The Musical at the Westside Theatre; many shows at the Irish Repertory Theatre, the York Theatre Company, The Directors Company, Cape Playhouse, et al. Toured internationally in Fiddler on the Roof starring Topol, then Harvey Fierstein and Theodore Bikel. A proud member of Actors Equity Association. Love to Lisa.

Sloane Fischer (Assistant Stage Manager) is a New York based Stage Manager with a BA in Stage Management from PACE University. Some Pace credits include; A Midsummer Night's Dream (ASM), Julio Down By the Schoolyard (ASM), Twelfth Night the Musical (PSM) and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (PSM). Professional credits include; Grease (PA) at Studio Tenn,  Future Fest (PSM) at 54 Below, a staged reading of the new play, Blood, Sweat, Tears (PSM) at The Tank, Christen the Place (PSM) at IRT, The Samuel French competition with a staged reading of the new play Blocked (PSM) at Playwrights Horizons, How to Find a Husband in 37 Years or Longer (PSM) at Under St. Marks,  and a staged reading of the new play, Into The River I Went (PSM) at The Kraine. Off Broadway credits include; The Keen Teens Festival (ASM) at Theater Row.  This process has indeed been magical, and she is so thankful to have this opportunity to be a part of such an amazing production and team! Words cannot express how thrilled she is for you all to see this amazing show! Enjoy!

Everyman Agency (Press Representatives) is a communications firm promoting complex ideas, mostly in the arts. Founded by John Wyszniewski, Everyman Agency builds awareness and provokes action for cultural organizations and individual artists by putting impactful storytelling, strategic thinking, and meaningful relationships at the heart of its work. They believe in the power of the media to shine a spotlight on new and underrepresented voices. Everyman Agency specializes in dance, theater, music, visual art, and the compelling work in between. Clients include the american vicarious, Ars Nova, Axis Theatre, The Civilians, Elevator Repair Service, Keen Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Target Margin Theater, TheaterWorks Hartford, and SITI Company, among others. www.everymanagency.com