Meet the Creative Team 

Liba Vaynberg (Co-Creator, Playwright): is a first generation American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. The daughter of Ukrainian and Azeri Jews, she is bilingual in English and Russian. She studied Molecular Biology at Yale before receiving her MFA at Columbia. She recently originated the role of the Gallerina in Bad Dog at Miami New Drama, and she is currently part of the IAMA Emerging Playwrights Lab and is a staff writer on STAR CITY (Sony/AppleTV+), a thriller that follows an alternative history of the space race.

Recent plays include The Matriarchs which was selected for and developed at the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and developed with the Civilians R&D group. It was also a Princess Grace Finalist, Blackburn Nominee, Theater J Abramson Finalist (Top 3), Blue Ink Award Finalist, Jewish Plays Project and Premiere-Stages Semi-Finalist. Her play, The Gett, was the inaugural commission at Rattlestick with CBE, a Princess Grace Semi-Finalist, Colorado New Play Festival Selection, and included in Theater Ariel’s Salon Series. Round Table premiered at 59E59 (Times Square Chronicles 10 Best Plays of 2019, Gary Marshall Theater New Works Semi-Finalist 2018) and was reprised at Tierra Del Sol. Other plays include Scheiss Book which she both wrote and performed at the United Solo Festival at Theatre Row, winning Best One-Woman Show as well as the Backstage Magazine Audience Choice Award. The show was reprised at the wild project, Dixon Place, Stonewall Inn and premiered regionally at the Kitchen Theater. Her plays The Oxford Comma and Miriam received educational premieres at Xavier University. Her play with Emily Louise Perkins, The Russian & The Jew was the recipient of a COJECO BluePrint Fellowship and produced by the Tank. Her collaboration with Dina Vovsi—The Blue Parts—was commissioned by the Working Theater via the 5 Boroughs 1 City Initiative and was the recipient of a NYSCA grant and an upcoming Drama League Special Residency.

She writes for Lilith Magazine and was the recipient of a Water E. Dakin Fellowship at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the LABA Humor Fellowship. She has taught at Rutgers MGSA, Duke University, Pomona College, Xavier University, and University of the South. As a performer, highlights include New Amsterdam (NBC, 4 seasons), Annie Blumberg in the PBS broadcast of The Soap Myth opposite Ed Asner, Bekah Brunstetter’s Oregon Trail at the WP, Lost In Yonkers opposite Marsha Mason (CT Critic’s Circle nom.), and Golem of Havana at La Mama. www.libavaynberg.com

Dina Vovsi (Co-Creator, Director) is a New York-based director, theatermaker, and educator. She is the recipient of a 2024-25 Next Stage Special Residency at The Drama League for her collaboration with co-creator and playwright Liba Vaynberg, The Blue Parts, a play about the intersection of the Ukrainian and Pakistani immigrant communities in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The Blue Parts was also a Working Theater 5 Boroughs 1 City Initiative Commission and the recipient of a 2023 NYSCA Support for Artists Grant. 

She received grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council and the Puffin Foundation for River Watchers, a site-specific, journey-based play she conceived and directed on a 14-seat Langley canoe in Newtown Creek and co-created with playwright Dan Caffrey and performer/canoeist Jens Rasmussen. River Watchers was produced in association with The Motor Company and the North Brooklyn Community Boathouse for a sold-out run in 2023, and was also a finalist for the More Art Engaging Artists Commission and a two-time finalist for The Civilians’ and Princeton University’s Next Forever Initiative. 

Dina has directed and developed new work with WP Theater, The Civilians, New Georges, Working Theater, Cape Cod Theatre Project, The Orchard Project, New Dramatists, The Bushwick Starr, Fresh Ground Pepper, and more. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and co-leader of the New Georges Jam, and an alum of the WP Directors’ Lab, the Roundabout Directors Group, the Mercury Store Directing Lab, the Robert Moss Directing Fellowship at Playwrights Horizons, The Civilians’ R&D Group, the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, and the SDC Foundation Observership. Dina was a 2022 & 2023 Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA Grantee and a 2021 Brooklyn Arts Council Grantee for the collaborative soundwalk EXITS, a New Georges Supported Production. As an associate/assistant director, Dina has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway, and regionally with Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, Spoleto Festival USA, WP Theater, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Ma-Yi, and more. 

Dina is currently on faculty at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, teaching directing at Playwrights Horizons Theater School, and at Brooklyn College, teaching in the MFA Acting Graduate Program. She has guest directed at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Long Island University. Born in Riga, Latvia, Dina immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union as a child in one of the major waves of Soviet Jewish migration. 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.

Tina Benko (MARINA) most recently performed as Toni in the 2024 Tony Award winning play Appropriate in which she was the standby for Sarah Paulson. Also on Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, The Crucible, Not About Nightingales, The Cherry Orchard. Off Broadway includes:  Becky Nurse of Salem at Lincoln Center, Claudia Rankin’s HELP at The Shed, Rajiv Joseph’s Describe The Night at The Atlantic, Elfriede Jellinek’s Jackie for Women’s Project, Toni Morrison’s Desdemona, The Little Foxes and Scenes From a Marriage directed by Ivo Van Hove, Daniel Fish’s Who Left This Fork Here, Il Bunkerini at Clubbed Thumb, and the New York premiere of Eureka Day off- broadway. Film/TV: The Adults, Kaleidoscope, Mother May I Have a Kidney, Mapplethorpe, The Sound of Silence, Life After You,The Scottish Play, Hot Air, Fair MarketValue,The Greatest Showman, FBI: Most Wanted, Monsterland, Brotherhood, Turn: Washington Spies, Raising Kanan, The Other Two, Nobody Wants to Shoot a Woman,The Rehearsal (best supporting actress Emmy/Digital Series), and Elsbeth.

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.

Mary Garrigan (Stage Manager) Off-Broadway: Another Shot (The Signature Center), All The World’s A Stage (Keen Company), Fish (Keen Company & Working Theater), Dig (Primary Stages), Belfast Girls (Irish Repertory Theatre), Cell (The Drama League & Keen Company), Powerhouse (Manhattan Repertory Theatre); Regional Credits: Sense & Sensibility (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey) The Brothers Size (Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre), The Orchard (Arlekin Players), The Cape Cod Theatre Project ‘22. Other Credits: Not Beckett (Irish Repertory Theatre), New Works Fall Festival (Irish Repertory Theatre), Follies In Concert (Carnegie Hall), Christmas Time in The City (Transport Group), Othello (New Place Players), Messy White Gays (Powerhouse Theater & The Fabulous Invalid), Australian Theatre Festival ‘23.