The Maternal Instinct CAST AND CREW
	Rena Baskin (Emma) loves to participate in the development of new works for stage, and is very pleased to be playing a part in the premiere of Monica Bauer’s wonderful new play.  Last yearRena played several roles in Blinders with Out of the Blue Theater Company here at Boston Playwrights' Theatre.  She has also performed locally with Boston Theater Works, Gloucester Stage Company, the Nora, Wheelock, the Publick, and the Jewish Theater of New England, and regionally at the New London Barn Playhouse and the Portsmouth Music Hall in New Hampshire. Rena’s club and cabaret work includes Jacques Brel, the music of Barber, Weil, Gershwin, and Ellington, as well as multi-cultural folk music, and pop tunes. She works on-camera as well, and appeared in the role of Colleen Hughes in the TV movie Oilstorm, which aired last year on FX TV.  Her voice can be heard in narrations and commercials on radio and TV, and in industrial and educational videos, and in the narration for the Star Wars Exhibit at the Museum of Science. Rena serves on the local board of the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, on the local council of the Screen Actors Guild, and is a member of Actor’s Equity Association.
	Stephen Cooper (Fred) last appeared with Out of the Blue Theater Company in April 2005 as Stack Thompson, “the world’s greatest salesman” at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Other appearances on this stage include as a maniacal Hollywood television producer in Theresa Rebeck’s dark comedy The Family of Mann, produced by the Wellesley Summer Theatre (where he is a member of the company), as well as in numerous Boston Theatre Marathon offerings. Most recent roles include Andrey (Afterplay), Toad (The Wind in the Willows), Nick Flanagan (The Guys), Jim Curran (The Weir), Ford Madox Ford (After Mrs. Rochester), and as the lead in a radio play, Alice Dunbar Nelson’s The Stones of the Village, produced for NPR by the Public Media Foundation. Stephen studied acting in Los Angeles with the late Susan Peretz, and he dedicates his work to her memory.
	Alisha Jansky (Sarah) is thrilled to be working with Out of the Blue Theater Company again after having such a blast in last year's Blinders, and to be on stage once again at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre having performed in their amazing Boston Theater Marathons, numerous staged readings, and as Lila in the premier of Humpin’ Glory Bay and Hilda in the premier of The Silver Coast. Other local theatre companies she has performed with include: Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lyric West, Worcester Forum Theatre, SpeakEasy Stage, Raven Theatrical, Centastage, The Publick Theatre, and Delvena Theatre Company. Some of her favorite roles include Berdine in Psycho Beach Party, Hypatia in Misalliance, Carol in Orpheus Descending, Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Elma in Bus Stop, Marta Towers in Red Scare On Sunset, and Lydia Languish in The Rivals. Alisha has been enjoying working as a voice over narrator for projects at WGBH, Harvard, and B.U. She recently did two short films: The Tinman and Bloodsugar (in which she co-starred with Karen Woodward Massey as a pair of murderous femme fatales). Alisha is a graduate of Emerson College's acting program, and she continues to study with Karen Shepard. She sends her love and thanks to Michael Barrett.
	Elise Audrey Manning (Terry) is thrilled to be making her debut with Out of the Blue Theatre Company, after sharing the stage with Stephen Cooper under Melissa Wentworth’s direction at South City Theatre’s May Day Play Day Theater Marathon. A few of her favorite roles include Louise in Haiku, Natalia in Checkhov’s The Marriage Proposal and Sonia in I Promised I Would Tell. Recent roles include Viola (Twelfth Night), the Man (The White Guy), Claire (Rumors), and Older and Younger Female Actors (This Is A Play). Elise has worked extensively as a director and performer of puppetry and improvisation on the streets of Boston, New York, and Russia, and is delighted to bring her passion for the creative spirit to this production. Elise currently enjoys her roles as Associate Producer and Production Manager of The Etty Project, and as a teacher of drama at The Munroe Center for the Arts.
	Karen Woodward Massey (Lillian) was last seen onstage at the Gecko Staged Reading series portraying characters created by Patrick Gabridge and Hortense Gerardo.  She is thrilled to have had the privilege of working with Melissa J. Wentworth and Monica Bauer developing The Maternal Instinct.  Last spring she portrayed Karen Sayer in Pat Gabridge's political satire Blinders at the Boston Playwrights Theater and acted in his 10 minute play Flight at the Boston Theater Marathon.  She had the great good fortune to help create and work with Out of the Blue Theater Company with Melissa J. Wentworth at the helm.  She has also acted with Underground Railway Theater, Worcester Foothills Theater, the Lyric Stage, the Publick Theater, the Sugan Theater Company, Boston Theater Works and Merrimack Repertory Theater. She is a proud member of StageSource, Actors Equity Association, the Screen Actor's Guild (Boston Vice President), and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. To support her theater addiction, Karen also wrangles grants at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Many thanks, as always, to Rob, Seamus, and Shakti.
	Monica Bauer (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright and composer. A graduate of Brown and Yale, she was the Teaching Fellow in the Graduate Playwriting Program at Boston University in 2004-05, where she studied with Derek Walcott, Kate Snodgrass, and Richard Schotter. She has also studied with Craig Lucas as part of the Pataphysics seminars at The Flea Theater in New York City. She is currently an Editor for Choice Magazine, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Her plays have been featured locally at the Boston Theater Marathon, Hovey Summer Shorts Festival, Natick Center for the Arts, the Arlington Players, Cambridge Center for Adult Education, and the Atlantis Playmakers 2005 Short Attention Span PlayFEST in Billerica, where her play My Trip to the State Pen was voted an “Audience Favorite” award. She has had plays published by Brooklyn Publishers and JAC Publications.
	Melissa J. Wentworth (Director) received her MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College before founding Out of the Blue Theater Company (OOTB) with Karen Woodward Massey in 1992.  Melissa most recently directed the winning play, Partners, for Another Country Productions November SlamBoston, Diverse Voices in Theater.  After years of directing classics, Melissa is currently focused on new works and collaborating with playwrights.  Past premieres include The Loved One by Dorothy Tan, Blinders by Patrick Gabridge and Antigone (original music score by Bob Nicoll).  Her directorial work has appeared for the past four years at the Boston Theater Marathon:  Insomnia by Patrick Gabridge, P'Town Christmas '99 by Carl A. Rossi, Dream of Jeannie By-The-Door by David Valdes Greenword, Den of Iniquity by Gabridge and Flight by Gabridge.  Melissa's work with children and young adults was seen in The Secret Garden, a musical adaptation by Miriam Raiken-Kolb, and Alice in Wonderland, with original music by Raiken-Kolb.
	Michael Filisky It is with great sadness that we report that Michael passed away on March 9th. He was a director, stage manager, actor, mime, performance artist, fool, production manager, and a teacher of mime and theatre movement in New York, New England, several sites in the Midwest, Amsterdam and Rotterdam (Netherlands), and on national tours of colleges and schools. Since 1981 he worked in science education as a museum educator, researcher, teacher educator, science writer, and author of children’s books. During that time he has also organized symposia on Art and Science (“Parallels in Creativity”), on Science and Journalism (“Covering Controversies in Science”), and has directed staged readings of plays about science. Michael's wife Ingrid Bartinique and daughter Marina Filisky are in our hearts and minds. Click Here for more information about Michael.
	Loann West (Set, Costume, & Prop Design) is a Boston area actress as well as a designer.  Her costumes for Zeitgeist Stage's Far Away featuring 60 hats earned her an IRNE nomination last year.  As an actress she is currently available in the two woman show, Mourning Becomes Eugene O'Neill produced by Delevena Theatre and directed by Joseph P. Zamparelli, Jr. She and her fellow actress, Lynne Moultan, co-wrote the piece as an 'edutainment'--an exploration of grief and mourning through the life and works of Eugene O'Neill.   She has designed for local colleges and theaters such as Regis College, Northeastern University, The Theatre Coop and essayons.  She has also acted for the Theatre Coop and essayons as well as Delvena. She is deeply grateful to Melissa for the chance to work with Out of the Blue again after meeting “the gang” last year as the designer for Blinders.
	Zele Avradopoulos (Stage Manager) recently relocated to Boston from Athens, Greece. She was a Parade of Athletes Coordinator for the Athens 2004 Olympics. She was the also the instigator of the revival of The New Players, a semi-professional English speaking theatre company in Athens.  Some credits include:  Two and Two Makes Sex, Farnsdale Avenue Macbeth. She also taught at Int'l schools and English schools in Athens since 1993.
	Thomas Keydel (Press Assistant) has been a director, actor, production manager, and producer most frequently seen at The Theater At Old South. He has worked with Monica Bauer previously as the director of her earlier work Diet Monologues. He is excited to see this new work of Monica Bauer come to life on the stage of the Boston Playwright’s Theater.
	Matt O’Hare (Sound Designer) is a Boston College graduate and an alumnus of the Hangar Theatre’s Lab Company Design Program. In New York, his work was recently heard in Mabou Mines’ Lost Box of Utopia. In Boston, he recently sound designed Home for Queersoup and True West for Dangerous Animal Theater. He looks forward to returning to the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York this summer where he will head their sound department. Matt was also recently nominated for an IRNE award for his work in SpeakEasy’s Kiss of the Spider Woman. He wishes to thank Melissa, Out of the Blue, his family, and friends.
(Sample design work)	PJ Strachman (Lighting Design) holds a degree from Boston University in Independent Theatre Studies with a concentration in Lighting Design. Since then, she has designed for Boston TheatreWorks (upcoming designs include The Sweetest Swing in Baseball and Gorilla Man), Chamber Repertory Theatre, J. Rene Productions, and several area private schools and colleges. At Stonehill College, she designed the lighting for A Mouthful of Birds, which won the Regional Award for the American College Theatre Festival. She has been a guest lecturer with Brimmer & May High School, The Cambridge School of Weston, and Stonehill College. PJ has also been the Master Electrician for several seasons with Boston Theater Works, Gloucester Stage Company, and other area theater companies.