Meet the Creative Team 

Liba Vaynberg (Playwright): Liba’s play Scheiss Book won Best One-Woman Show and Backstage Magazine Audience Choice Award at the United Solo Festival at Theatre Row and was also produced at Dixon Place & Stonewall Inn. Her play Round Table was programmed as part of Fault Line Theatre’s new work series IRONS IN THE FIRE. The Russian and the Jew, written with Emily Margolin, was selected as a 2017-2018 COJECO (Council of Jewish Émigré Community Organizations) BluePrint Fellowship and was produced this Winter at the Tank. As a performer, she appeared on New Amsterdam (NBC), Madam Secretary (CBS), Billy & Billie (DirecTV), The Deuce (HBO) and on stage at Classic Stage Company, the Women’s Project with Fault Line, HERE, La Mama, Yale, Williamstown, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre, Penguin Rep & Miami New Drama. Liba studied Molecular Biology & International Studies at Yale before getting her MFA from Columbia. libavaynberg.com

Dina Vovsi (Director) is a New York-based director and theatermaker committed to developing and devising new plays. Upcoming: Deborah Yarchun’s DRIVE (The Civilians’ R&D Group Findings Series, May 2019) and Mac Wellman’s SINCERITY FOREVER (The Flea, Summer/Fall 2019). Recent: UNTITLED PARLOR PLAY, OR, FOR HOME AMUSEMENT (Access Residency), IPHIGENIA AND OTHER DAUGHTERS (LIU Post), FIRST BY FAITH: THE LIFE OF MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE (United Solo, Best Educational Show), THE BASTARD (Dixon Place), VISITING HOURS (TheaterLab). Dina has developed new work at The Culture Project’s Women Center Stage, The Barn Arts Collective, FringeNYC, Working Theater, Atlantic Acting School, Pipeline Theatre Company, Fresh Ground Pepper, Theatre 167, The Flea, and more. Assistant directing: Broadway, off-Broadway, and regionally, with Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and more. Dina is a Resident Director at The Flea and a member of the 2018-2019 Civilians R&D Group. She has been a Robert Moss Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons, the recipient of an SDC Foundation Observership, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, an O’Neill National Directors Fellowship Finalist, and a Mass MoCA Assets for Artists Grantee. www.dinavovsi.com

Kate Abbruzzese (MASHA) is an actor, playwright, and illustrator based in Brooklyn. Her TV work includes roles on “Law & Order: SVU”, “The Equalizer”, and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. In New York, Kate has worked alongside artists at the Public Theater, Red Bull Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, and New Dramatists. She has appeared Off-Broadway in Pound opposite Christopher Lloyd and in Daniel McCoy’s Dick Pix at Theaterlab. Regionally, Kate has acted at the Old Globe, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Hartford Stage, Chautauqua Theater Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Baltimore Centerstage, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Florida Studio Theater, Shakespeare & Co, Tennessee Shakespeare Co., and more. She is a two time winner of the Red Bull Short New Play Festival, and her Macbeth-inspired play, Thick My Blood, was selected for development at the Bethany Arts Community and chosen as a semifinalist for the 2022 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

Omar Shafiuzzaman (ABDUR) is a New York-based actor who trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Omar is thrilled to be part of this staged reading series and deeply appreciates the opportunity to collaborate with such a talented creative team. He extends his gratitude to everyone involved in bringing this story to life. His theatre credits include Elyria at the Atlantic Theater Company and Henry V / Loves Labor’s Lost at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. His television credits include roles on Law & Order and The Equalizer. Representation – Nicolosi & Co. Talent Agency (NY) (212) 633-1010.

Zuzanna Szadkowski (MARINA) is known for playing “Dorota” on Gossip Girl. She can be seen in the upcoming Amazon series, Étoile. Other television and film credits include HBO’s The Gilded Age, Three Women, Worth, Bull,Search Party, The Knick, The Good Wife and Girls. Theater credits include queens at LCT3, Love, Loss and What I Wore, Arcadia and Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet (WSJ Performance of the Year 2018) with Bedlam, The Comedy of Errors at the Public Theater, Coach Coach and King Philip’s Head… with Clubbed Thumb and regional work at Bristol Riverside Theatre, The Actors Theater of Louisville, Two River Theater and Bucks County Playhouse. M.F.A. from A.R.T./MXAT Institute at Harvard.