We’re gearing up for our next production: Beth Henley’s sweeping, grand, funny, moving and heartful play, Abundance. And we have two more Salons on deck as well. In the meantime, here’s what our talented company of theatre artists have been up to:

MARY BACON is currently playing Mary Todd Lincoln in the world premiere of the new play The Widow Lincoln by James Still at the Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC through Feb 22nd. A great reason to visit the capital!
 
EVE BIANCO did a workshop of a new play late this past fall called citibabi.net written by her classmate from Juilliard, Jeffrey Stafford. She continues to do audiobooks under a pseudonym so no one knows it’s her (because they are that good); she has done a few voiceovers for a popular pharmaceutical and has spent much of the fall in and out of high schools throughout the 5 boroughs with her daughter, Ali, who is applying for next fall.
 
DARYL BORNSTEIN certainly had a busy and exciting year. It included designing sound for the Northern Stage production of White Christmas, seven months mixing Rock of Ages on Broadway, teaching a master class on “Sound Reinforcement for Barbershop Quartets”, and producing, recording, and mixing the inaugural season of the “Theatre Initiative” for WNET/Channel Thirteen. Among the nine Off Broadway plays shot and broadcast, was Richard Nelson’s The Apple Family Plays featuring actor supreme and TACT Sound Designer, Stephen Kunken. He is starting off 2015 producing a very exciting jazz trio recording featuring Native American flutist Joseph Firecrow (Grammy and NAMY winner), pianist Clifford Carter (James Taylor, 24th Street Band), and drummer/percussionist Doug Yowell (Susanne Vega, Duncan Sheik), mixing house sound for “The View”, as well as gearing up for the second season of the WNET’s Theatre Initiative.
 
After a summer where she directed Death Trap and appeared in The Man Who Came to Dinner (directed by fellow TACT company member, Terry Layman), NORA CHESTER spent the autumn recovering (beautifully) from a bilateral knee replacement and managed to appear in one of the original pieces with The Dare Project in November. She is looking forward to all the exciting projects coming up for TACT in 2015.
 
CYNTHIA DARLOW and her glorious husband RICHARD FERRONE, enjoyed peaceful holidays here in the “Big Apple”. The new year includes the recording of her 16th book, in the “Miss Julia” series, by Ann B. Ross, and a continuing workshop of In a Roundabout Way by former TACT guest artist Kim Sykes, and directed by TACT founding member, Paul Hecht. It deals with the fascinating relationship between Mary Todd Lincoln and her mulatto seamstress and confidante, Elizabeth Keckley. There will be a performance at Guild Hall in East Hampton late March.
 
FRANCESCA Di MAURO is in her second year as a licensed social worker at Andrus Children’s Center while continuing her training as a drama therapist. Daughter Chiara is now in high school and husband Ryan – one of TACT’s founding and “emeritus” members – has started his own fine wine distribution company, Imperial Wines and Spirits. Francesca still does voiceovers and misses the stage, but enjoys it vicariously through her TACT cohorts.
 
SCOTT ALAN EVANS, reports that working on TACT’s December Salon of French Without Tears, by Terence Rattigan, was a particularly delightful experience. He’s a big fan of Rattigan’s work, of course, and was honored to work with the wonderful cast which included company members Jeremy Beck, Kelly McAndrew, Victoria Mack and Anthony Roach and some very talented and very game guest artists: Curt Bouril, John Fitzgibbon, Wesley Taylor and Brendan Titley.
 
Collaborating with cellist Lawrence Stomberg, JONATHAN FAIMAN performed a series of all-Beethoven concerts last fall. Their collaboration continues in the new year with performances at Concordia College and in Pennsylvania. Jonathan is holding teaching positions at Hoff-Barthelson and Concordia College and staff accompaniment positions at Concordia and Larchmont Temple. He continues his work as MD and assistant-MD at public schools in Westchester County and has recently joined the Musician’s Union 802.
 
Following The Killing of Sister George at TACT this fall, MARY LOUISE GEIGER designed lighting for Dael Orlandersmith’s new piece Forever, now running at Long Wharf and at New York Theatre Workshop beginning in April. She is also designing The Other Place at Virginia Stage. February includes Chapatti at Cincinnatti Playhouse and a new piece choreographed by Myles Thatcher for San Francisco Ballet.
 
DELPHI HARRINGTON and Woody Regan, her collaborator, have been asked to return to the Metropolitan Room, to perform their Cabaret show, Cowardly Swann, which they premiered last Spring. The show is a melange of the songs of Noël Coward and the writing team of Flanders and Swann, with cogent anecdotes about their lives, a little gossip, and a lot of fun. You can make a reservation to Cowardly Swann by contacting the Metropolitan Room (212)-206-0440. Performance are: Wednesdays at 7pm, February 25, March 25, April 15,and Saturday at 1pm, May 2.
 
Following her performance in The Killing of Sister George, CYNTHIA HARRIS has been busy lining up her next projects. She is very much looking forward to the Spring Gala on May 11th and hopes you will join us for the celebration!
 
SIMON JONES continues on tour with Blithe Spirit with TACT Dame Angela Lansbury. After a sell-out two months in LA, he’s on to San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington DC. For details see www.blithespirittheplay.com. The tour ends on March 29th. He was also heard on BBC Radio 4 in an adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens over the holiday season.
 
DARRIE LAWRENCE is happily working at the Denver Center Theatre Company in a new play, Appogiatura, by Pulitzer nominated James Still, director Risa Brainin. It is a beautiful piece of theatre writing and she is enjoying the challenge. It is a not a musical, but there is music and it flows organically from one moment to the next. It is set in Venice which she now must visit! She worked at the Denver Center 30 years ago, and although the theatre remains the same Denver has transformed. She feels a bit like Rip Van Winkle: nothing is like it used to be. Denver is a vibrant, exciting, world class city with a very lively downtown scene and too many good restaurants to sample even in an eleven week stay. In late March Darrie will be in Indianapolis (another city that has transformed) to do On Golden Pond. Life is good.
 
TERRY LAYMAN is playing Joe Keller in All My Sons at The Swine Palace Theatre on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge through the middle of February. When he comes back to town, he’ll begin preparing to direct TACT’s April Salon, Arthur Miller’s The Man Who Had All the Luck.
 
VICTORIA MACK will spend a couple weeks in February workshopping a new play by and with Theresa Rebeck at the Denver Center New Play Festival. She’s very proud to be Theresa’s go-to-gal to play evil rich New York City girls who sweep in and ruin everything! In March and April she’ll be taking a collection of 10-minute plays by Amy Herzog and Dave Read, which she stars in and produced, to Santiago, Chile, to perform at two major cultural centers.
 
KELLY McANDREW is currently in rehearsal for TACT’s production of Abundance! It’s her first full production with the company. You can see her in the hit indie film Appropriate Behavior which opened in January in New York and select cities. She can also be seen in Season 3 of Orange is the New Black which will be released on Netflix in June.
 
GREG McFADDEN appeared on Person of Interest on January 2nd (CBS.com) and can be seen in Mozart in the Jungle on Amazon Prime.
 
MacKENZIE MEEHAN is currently in Boston rehearsing a new play at The Huntington Theater called, The Second Girl. “With Eugene O’Neill’s classic Long Day’s Journey into Night as a backdrop, The Second Girl is set in the downstairs world of the Tyrone family kitchen in August 1912. Two Irish immigrant servant girls and the chauffeur search for love, success, and a sense of belonging in their new world in this lyrical and poignant world premiere by Ronan Noone (Brendan, The Atheist) and directed by Campbell Scott. “ The play will open on Jan 28th and closes Feb 21st. Please visit www.huntingtontheatre.org for more info.
 
LAUREN MILLER recently directed the very fun Chris Pappas Presents…Chris Pappas’ Facebook…LIVE! in Solocom at the People’s Improv Theatre, which will return to comedy stages across the city in the coming year. She continues to collaborate with Amios’ 10 minute play series Shotz, and is busily and eagerly reviewing scripts for newTACTics’ 5th season, coming to TACT in June 2015.
 
JAMES MURTAUGH and his wife Alice have been living a season of “All In The Family” for the past three months. Their daughter, her husband and his grandchild have been living with them while their East Side apartment is under construction. James said, “And to think I thought Archie Bunker was being cruel when he referred to his son in law as meathead! Actually, it allowed us to get very close to our grandson whom we will sorely miss when they move back.” He is also eagerly awaiting the arrival of his second grandson in late February just around the time his Mother, God love her, will be celebrating her 101st birthday.
 
MARGARET NICHOLS is in the middle of other creative throes at the moment, creating a multimedia digital online download program titled “Bliss. Here. Now.” to be launched by Spring of 2015. She hopes to be bringing practical yet powerful meditative techniques to people all over the globe!
 
JOHN PLUMPIS directed a terrific cast in TACT’s Salon I’ll Leave It To You by Noël Coward in November. Audiences were delighted, and he was humbled and gratified by the kind comments on the production from our TACT patrons. Thank you again! He is currently appearing Off-Broadway in Soul Doctor, and continues to teach at Montclair State University.
 
LIV ROOTH is in rehearsals for David Ives’ Lives of the Saints at Primary Stages, directed by John Rando. This is an evening of seven one acts, three of which are brand new, never before seen bundles of Ives-ian joy! This is her fourth play with the absolutely wonderful Mr. Ives, and her second with the extraordinary John Rando. Previews begin Feb 3, and the show runs at The Duke on 42nd St. through March 27.
 
DAVID STALLER, Founding Artistic Director of Gingold Theatrical Group; produces and directs the monthly Project Shaw (now in its 10th year) at Symphony Space. GTG will present its annual SHAW NEW YORK festival (details to follow, check our website), which will include a full production of a Shaw play along with symposiums, concerts, and a reading of one of the specially commissioned new plays. David, a frequent speaker on all things Shaw and human rights, will be teaching an undergraduate course with Andrew M. Flescher in 2015 at Stony Brook University, focusing on Shaw, Humanities and Ethics. Visit www.GingoldGroup.org
 
JENN THOMPSON had a busy fall/winter directing productions at Denver Center Theatre (Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike) and Pioneer Theatre in Salt Lake City (Peter and the Starcatcher). She is happily back in NYC and excited to be working on TACT’s Abundance – which begins February 17th.
 
JEFF TALBOTT: After being out of town most of the fall, first with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Pioneer Theatre in Salt Lake City and A Christmas Story at the Cleveland Playhouse, Jeff is thrilled to be back in NYC and even more thrilled to be starting rehearsals for TACT’s production of Abundance. He continues to write, and is hard at work on a new play and also a new musical with his writing partner, Will Van Dyke.
 
If you are looking for a starry TACT constellation, check out MARGOT WHITE and MARK ALHADEFF, both of whom are the understudies MTC’s Broadway production of Constellations, now running through March 15th. Ruth Wilson and Jake Gyllenhall have nothing on our TACTors!