Galen Crawley
(Missie Eliason)
Galen is thrilled to be making her debut at the Alliance! You may have seen her this year as Erin in Married Alive (ART Station) or as Alexandra in The Little Foxes (Theatre in the Square). Regional credits include Sally in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Festival 56); Hair, Annie and Show Boat (The Little Theatre on the Square); and Hairspray, Annie and Hello, Dolly! (Arrow Rock Lyceum). She has a BFA in musical theatre from the Conservatory at Webster University in St. Louis. Thanks to Mom and Dad for not turning her bedroom into a home gym, Devyn for liking SYTYCD, Dan for Skype hugs and her friends all over the country for their phone calls.
Tess Malis Kincaid
(Liz Eliason)
Tess appeared last season at the Alliance as Barbara in August: Osage County. She has also appeared here in Moonlight and Magnolias, The Miracle Worker and Amadeus. Tess is an associate artist at Georgia Shakespeare, where she has performed in Antony and Cleopatra, Noises Off, Titus Andronicus, The Odyssey, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Last year she traveled to San Francisco to perform in The Seagull at Marin Theatre Company. Tess has also worked at Actor’s Express, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Theatre in the Square, Horizon Theatre, People’s Light & Theatre (Philadelphia) and NC Shakespeare Festival (eight seasons). Film/TV: I Can Do Bad All By Myself and “House of Payne.” She received the 2010 Suzi Bass Award for best actress in a play for Good Boys and True. She is married to actor Mark Kincaid, and they have a beautiful daughter, Barbara Rose.
James Leaming
(Jonathan Eliason)
This is James' Alliance Theatre debut. A Few Good Men, Peninsula Players; Tobacco Road, American Blues Theater, Chicago; This Wonderful Life at Cleveland Playhouse (2010), Syracuse Stage (2009) and Asolo Repertory in Florida (2008); Devil’s Disciple, Winter’s Tale and Inventing Van Gogh. This season his one-person This Wonderful Life will play at Laguna Playhouse, Calif. In Chicago he has worked for Steppenwolf, Northlight, Victory Gardens, Goodman, Next and at Canamac Productions in Botanic Garden with his wife, Carmen Roman, directed by Olympia Dukakis. He is a founding member of American Blues Theater (1985). Training: American Conservatory Theatre (San Francisco), Second City (Chicago). Awards: After Dark best actor for The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon; Sarasota Magazine best actor and best show for This Wonderful Life; and a Joseph Jefferson Award for the set design of Tobacco Road. He is proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
Elisabeth Omilami
(Evalyn Rentas)
Elisabeth is excited to return to the Alliance Theater stage after being away many years focusing on her non-profit, Hosea Feed the Hungry profiles 12 EncoreAtlant A.com and Homeless, and developing her television and film career. She still remembers the wonderful roles she’s played at the Alliance Theatre including Mrs. Fezziwig in David Bell’s A Christmas Carol (ummm Christmas!). Other Alliance performances include The Amen Corner and The Old Settler. With over 30 years experience on the professional theater stage Elisabeth can be seen most recently in the lifetime TV movie Marry Me and in the theatrical film The Blind Side. She thanks the Alliance for choosing her. Her husband, actor Afemo Omilami, was recently seen in Brokeology, so they have a running joke at home, which you can imagine. Her filmography and stage credits can be seen at Omilami.com.
Linda Carnes
(US Evalyn Rentas)
Linda is an alumna of the Alliance Theatre Acting Program and was last seen as Blanche Dubois in Desire, Desire, Desire; Grace Dunbar in scenes from The Nacirema Society…; and Flo in Picnic, all produced by the Acting Program. She performed Eve in the monologue, Past Eve, and the role of Carol in Watching Love in the 2010 Artist’s Showcase Atlanta at Seven Stages Theater. She appeared last as Clairee Belcher in a community theater production of Steel Magnolias and is featured in the role of Julia Brown in the AlphaFem Productions’ film, Chameleons. When not on stage Linda travels, cooks, engages in B.A.B.E.S., her charity and collects primitive art. She is an alumna of Drew University, Syracuse University and holds a doctorate from the University of Southern California. Linda is especially the proud mother of Chloë, a college student preparing to be an entrepreneur or marine biologist. She is represented by Houghton Talent.
Rachel Garner
(US Liz Eliason)
Rachel is delighted to be working at the Alliance for the first time. An Atlanta native, she graduated from Emory University with a degree in Theater Studies. Previous Atlanta credits include Sy inFair Use at Actor’s Express, Susan Smith in1:23 at Synchronicity Theatre, and Pace in The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at Theater Emory.
Emma Jackson
(US Missie Eliason)
Nationally:The Ugly Duckling (Serenbe Playhouse, Atlanta), Meeting at the Elders’ Circle (JPEK Creative Works, St. Louis), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Outlaw Style Thrance Company, Los Angeles). Internationally, Emma wrote, produced and directed a bilingual adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk in Shamakhy, Azerbaijan. Onscreen credits include The Spiderwick Chronicles and the short film Yellow. Emma holds a BFA from Webster University’s Conservatory of Theater Arts.
Alpha Trivette
(US Jonathen Eliason)
Alpha is honored to be making his Alliance Theatre acting debut. His early credits include the CBS-TV film
A Time to Triumph and Fox’s “America’s Most Wanted.” After a career as a headlining stand-up comic and 25 years as a morning-radio personality, Alpha returned to acting with classes in the Alliance Theatre’s Education Department. He starred in a number of black-box presentations, including
Once in a Lifetime,
Our Town,
Election Day, Splinters and showcase roles in
Circle Mirror Transformation, August: Osage County and
Man From Nebraska. Alpha stars in the longrunning hit
Peachtree Battle at the Ansley Park Playhouse. In the past year, Alpha has had featured film roles in
Tiger Lily, Slice,
The Ivy League,
Encuntrate and upcoming roles in
Slice II and
Pimp. He is grateful to the Alliance Theatre for the confidence in offering this role and to his family for their love and support.
Janece Shaffer
(Playwright)
Janece is an Atlanta native and nationally produced award-winning playwright. Her play Managing Maxine(Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, Gene-Gabriel Moore Best New Play Award) was commissioned by the Alliance and premiered here under the direction of Susan V. Booth in 2009 and then went on to the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota. Shaffer’s Brownie Points (2010 Gene-Gabriel Moore Best New Play Award) debuted at Theatrical Outfit and was produced in May 2011 at Seattle’s Taproot Theater. Other Alliance credits include Bluish (also produced at Teatron Theatre, Toronto; the New Jewish Theatre, St. Louis; and Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, Phoenix), and her very first play, He Looks Great in a Hat. Shaffer’s newest work, With Love From the Pyramids of Atlanta was presented in a staged reading under the direction of Kenny Leon at True Colors Theatre Company in April 2011. Shaffer has also developed work at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Theatre J, Sacramento Theatre Company, Horizon Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre and with New Rivers Dramatists. Shaffer dedicates this show to her wonderful family.
Jason Loewith
(Director)
Jason won Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle and Jeff awards for Best New Musical for Adding Machine: A Musical, which he co-wrote with composer Joshua Schmidt (off-Broadway, 2008). Recent regional work as a director includes Crime and Punishment and Working It Out (Baltimore CENTERSTAGE), Adding Machine: A Musical (Studio Theatre, DC), and a dozen plays for Chicago’s Next Theatre Company, where he served as artistic director from 2002-08. Those include the Chicago-area premieres of Dying City, Defiance, The Long Christmas Ride Home and Fabulation. While at Next, he conceived and directed the world premiere of The American Dream Songbook, wrote and directed the world premiere of War With the Newts and produced Chicago premieres by Caryl Churchill, Suzan-Lori Parks, Carson Kreitzer, Sam Shepard, Dael Orlandersmith and many more. He is a three-time NEA artistic excellence grantee, recipient of support from the Rockefeller MAP Fund and MacArthur’s International Connections Fund and a TCG New Generations Future Leaders grant. Jason lives in Washington, D.C., where he is the executive director of the National New Play Network.
Jack Magaw
(Scenic Designer)
Jack most recently designed Broke at the Alliance Theatre. Chicago/regional: World Premiere of Disgraced (American Theatre Company), Circle Mirror Transformation (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Gee’s Bend (Cincinnati Playhouse), Samuel J & K (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and Home (Court Theatre), Black Pearl Sings and Eclipsed (Northlight Theatre), A Few Good Men (Peninsula Players), In the Next Room… (Victory Gardens Theater), She Loves Me and The Caretaker (Writers Theatre), Radio Golf (Pittsburgh Public Theatre), Cabaret and A Flea in Her Ear (Kansas City Repertory). Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for Picnic and Bus Stop (Writers’ Theatre), Fences (Court Theatre) and Seven Guitars (Congo Square Theatre). Jack lives in Evanston with director Kimberly Senior and teaches design at both DePaul and Northwestern