CYNDI FREEMAN (Performer & Co-Writer)
Miss Freeman is an actress, playwright and story teller and burlesque performer. I Kissed Dash Riprock! was performed as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at the Assembly Rooms, and was the winner of a "Best in Festival Award for Excellence" at the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival. Riprock also enjoyed success in Boston, toured the UK with Guy Masterson Productions and was presented by Xaviera Hollander in Amsterdam. Ms Freeman’s third show Inside Cherry Pitz was presented at the Edinburgh Fringe at The Gilded Balloon, in NYC at The Midtown International Theatre Festival and at The Cherry Lane Theatre as part of the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival. Her first one-woman show, Greetings From Hollywood , was spotlighted on CNN, received a "Best in Fringe Festival" award at the NY International Fringe Festival, and was voted "Best New Play of New England -1998” by the Independent Reviewers of New England. Greetings was also presented at the Edinburgh Fringe at the Gilded Balloon. Ms Freeman is a recipient of a grand prize play writing fellowship award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (with collaborator Ellen Groves). Other credits include HBO, Comedy Central and Showtime. She resides in NYC.
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ELLEN
GROVES (Director/Co-Writer)
Received a BFA in Directing from Emerson College and a Master's degree in Theatre Theory and Aesthetics from Cornell University. She has acted, directed and taught acting for the past twenty years in Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Since returning to Boston in 1995, she has directed solo works by local performers Bob Baden, Cyndi Freeman and Scott Stiffler, worked with local sketch comedy groups PLANET GIRL and The Mrs. Potato Show , and directed staged readings for local playwright Michael Bettencourt, The Boston Playwrights' Theatre and the New Theatre's "New Works Festival" at The Boston Center For The Arts. In 1997 she participated in The First Annual New York International Fringe Festival as Festival Dramaturg, performer of Claire Dowie's one-woman show Adult Child/Dead Child, and as director and co-writer of Cyndi Freeman's one-woman show Greetings From Hollywood, which received a Best In Fringe Festival award at The New York International Fringe Festival and was voted "Best New Play of New England - 1998" by the Independent Reviewers of New England. She is the recipient, with Freeman, of a $7500 Artist Support Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Ellen has directed two plays for Brandeis University, The Milk of Human Kindness by Laurence Tocci and Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn. Most recently she directed the World Premiere of Melinda Lopez' award winning new play, The Order of Things, for CentaStage in Boston, in association with the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Playwrights.
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DREW GERACI (Director)
As a director and choreographer, Drew has staged such regional productions as Forever Plaid (Chicago and Toronto Companies won awards), Nunsense, Crazy For You, Dames at Sea, and Smokey Joe's Cafe. In NYC he has been involved for years with B'way Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and their annual Easter Bonnet and Gypsy of the Year Competitions (his own numbers have received 3 separate awards as well as assistant-directing the entire show for several years). Showcases for theatre festivals include Joseph and Napoleon and Believe in Me: A Bigfoot Musical for the 2004 Fringe. He choreographed The Awesome 80's Prom currently running Off-Broadway at Webster Hall. He is a founding member of the Core Theatre Company (coretheatreco.org). He also has a screenplay in the works. Aside from theatre, he is an award-winning photographer (geraciphoto.com). Drew is heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer directing "Spawn & Die," written by and starring Susan McIntosh, produced by Paul Lucas.
