Anthony Harmon turns multi-tasking into an art form and seems to never get a moment’s rest, which has led to his newest appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary/Treasurer with the NYS AFL-CIO.  He previously served as Director of Staff for the United Federation of Teachers from 2017 – 2024.  Prior to his position as Director of Staff, he also served as an Assistant to the UFT President, Director of Parent and Community Outreach, Director of Dial-A-Teacher, the union’s homework help service, Director of the Albert Shanker Scholarship Fund and Chair of the UFT African Heritage Committee; he is always on the go with an abundance of duties and challenges to be met.  In his capacity as the union’s point person on parent and community engagement, Anthony acted as the UFT’s ambassador to many grass-roots parent and civic organizations as well as cultural and faith-based institutions.  Anthony began his teaching career in 1987 at the High School of Graphic Communications Arts in New York City. 

Anthony was appointed as a Commissioner in 2019 to the New York City Civic Engagement Commission, and in July of 2018 Anthony was elected and still serves as a Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers 1.72-million-member organization, and in May of that same year he was elected International Executive Vice President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, one of the constituency groups of the AFL-CIO.

His many UFT duties keep him very busy, but Anthony still manages to serve in many other capacities, including President of the New York Branch of the NAACP, a delegate to the Central Labor Council, a member of the Board of Directors of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), a member of the Board for the Greater New York Labor and Religion Coalition, a member of the Board for the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, immediate President of the New York Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and a delegate to the AFL-CIO convention.

Anthony’s enthusiasm and drive make him a model for what a 21^st Century educator and trade unionist can be.

Rob Ackerman is grateful and honored that Working Theater and Artistic Director Mark Plesent produced four world premieres of his plays: Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson, directed by Theresa Rebeck at ART/NY; Call Me Waldo, directed by Margarett Perry at Kitchen Theater in Ithaca and Off Broadway; Disconnect, directed by Connie Grappo at Classic Stage Company; and Tabletop, directed by Connie Grappo at Dance Theater Workshop and transferred in a commercial production to American Place Theater, where it won the Drama Desk Award for Best Ensemble Performance. Rob’s other work includes a new romantic comedy, BackTalk, directed by Jeremy Webb and selected by Westport Country Playhouse for its 2025 Script in Hand Series; the 2024 film Stargazer (co-written with Kate Ginna, directed by Alan McIntyre, now streaming on Apple TV+ and Prime Video); Teach for America (commissioned  by ACT in San Francisco, directed by W.D. Keith); the book for Volleygirls (directed by Neil Patrick Stewart, music by Eli Bolin, lyrics by Sam Forman, NYMF winner of Best Ensemble Performance, Best in Fest, Most Promising New Musical, and New World Stages Development Award); the play and film Origin of the Species (with Amanda Peet, Jean Louisa Kelly, and Michael Kelly, directed by Andrés Heinz); Loyalty (a Harding story, award winner at the New York Theater Festival, directed by Katie Young); Icarus of Ohio (NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, directed by Fritz Ertl). Rob’s plays have been anthologized by Vintage Books, Dramatists Play Service, Smith and Kraus, and Playscripts, and nurtured at Yaddo, The Lark, Flux Theater Ensemble, and Dorset Theatre Festival. For 25 years, he worked as Prop Master for the SNL Film Unit. Rob grew up in Columbus, Ohio, majored in theater and Spanish at Middlebury, and earned an M.F.A. in stage directing at Northwestern. He and his wife, author Carol Weston, live in New York. He is a proud member of IATSE Local 52 and the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. 

Cynthia Bastidas (she/her/ella) is a NYC-based bilingual Chicana actor and filmmaker from the California/Mexico border in the Imperial Valley. She founded Semillita Productions, a media arts company that centers the stories of the Femme Latinx experience in the United States. Her short film missguidance was awarded Outstanding Short at the XicanIndie Film Festival and Audience Award at the Topaz Film Festival. She is currently directing and producing I Feel Pretty, a feature length documentary film examining Anti-blackness in the US Latine community. Her TV acting credits include Ramy S2 E6, Homeland S6 E6 and theater credits include Don’t Look Back (Voyage Theater Company) PlayOn! Shakespeare Festival (Classic Stage Company), Original Sound (Cherry Lane Theatre) and Just Like Us (Denver Center Theatre). To learn more about Semillita Productions or Cynthia as an actor visit www.semillitaproductions.com and www.cynthiabastidas.com.

Reynaldo Piniella has co-hosted the Working Theater’s gala five years in a row! Broadway: Thoughts of a Colored Man and Trouble in Mind. His Off-Broadway acting credits include work at Signature Theatre Company, the Public, the Working Theater, TFANA and Rattlestick, regionally with Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Long Wharf, the O’Neill, Cleveland Playhouse, NY Stage & Film, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival and Actors Theatre of Louisville and internationally with the Sundance Theatre Lab in Morocco and NEAP Fest in Rio de Janeiro. TV credits include Reservation Dogs, Sneaky Pete, Law & Order: SVU, The Carrie Diaries, Flesh & Bone, Blue Bloods, Greenleaf, Louie, NYC 22, Us & Them, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Film: Madeline’s Madeline (Sundance Film Fest, Showtime), Shadows (HBO Max) and Broken City (20th Century FOX). www.reynaldopiniella.com

Adam Kantor won an Emmy and a Grammy for his performance in the Tony-winning production of The Band’s Visit on Broadway, as well as an Outer Critics Circle honor for his performance in Darling Grenadine at the Roundabout. He was nominated for an LA Drama Critics Circle Award for The Inheritance at The Geffen Playhouse. Previously, on Broadway, Adam starred in Fiddler on the Roof, Next to Normal, and Rent (final cast, filmed live for Sony Pictures). Off-Broadway, he starred in the Last Five Years at Second Stage and Avenue Q at New World Stages. Regional highlights include Jonathan Larson’s Tick, Tick, Boom at Actor’s Playhouse in Miami, Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow’s Noir at the Alley in Houston, as well as Barry Levinson and Sheryl Crow’s Diner at the Signature outside DC. On TV he was in High Potential on ABC as “Spencer”, Billions on Showtime as “Pununzio”, and The Good Wife on CBS as “Ezra”. He starred in the feature film Either Side Of Midnight, directed by Roger Spottiswoode. Adam is a graduate of Northwestern University and the British American Dramatic Academy. He is a coach for The National High School Music Theatre Awards (“The Jimmy Awards”) since 2014. He was a co-creator of the digital special “SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER”, which raised over $4M for the CDC Foundation. It was produced by his interactive experiential culinary-theatre company StoryCourse. Adam has headlined concerts at Carnegie Hall as well Princeton Symphony Orchestra, among others. @AdamJKantor on social.

Eleri Ward is a New York City based actor, singer, musician, and songwriter
who made a name for herself by making an album of indie folk acoustic Sondheim covers in her walk in closet in 2021. “A Perfect Little Death” was praised by outlets such as Forbes and American Theatre Magazine, which led to her opening for Josh Groban’s Harmony Tour and releasing her second Sondheim album, “Keep A Tender Distance”, in 2022, which was critically acclaimed and featured in the New York Times. In 2024, Eleri could be seen as Jordan Baker in Florence Welch’s world premiere musical, GATSBY: An American Myth, at A.R.T. in Cambridge, and she is currently releasing original celestial pop music. @eleriward www.eleriward.com

Déa Thatcher makes musicals, ballets, poetry, and plays. She got a start in community choir and theater in North Western, NJ. Déa’s work has been developed at multiple stages including living rooms, table workshops, residencies, readings, concerts, commissions and productions. Member of The Dramatists Guild, Maestra, ASCAP, Untitled Musical Group and AFM Local 802. Training: Berklee College of Music. Currently: Déa plays accordion in the Prologue of Cabaret on Broadway and works as a composer assistant in NYC.