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No Child...

by Nilaja Sun
Previews November 9 and 10
Opening night November 11
Running through November 19, 2017

Sun transforms herself with rapid-fire precision into the teachers, students, parents and janitors who inhabit one New York City public school. See how one determined woman can change the lives of countless others in this tour de force piece crackling with wit and wisdom.


Pike St.

by Nilaja Sun
Opening night November 24
Running through December 3, 2017

On New York’s Lower East Side, a mother works hard to keep the electricity flowing for her daughter’s respirator while a hurricane looms nearby. As she prepares for disaster, a vibrant host of characters brings new meaning to the phrase “it takes a village.” 

Please be aware that the house will open ten minutes before show time, and there will be no late seating for Pike St.


The Artist


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Nilaja Sun

Nilaja Sun is an actor, playwright, and teaching artist. She recently performed an extended run of the critically acclaimed solo piece Pike St., which was commissioned and produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble and performed at the Abrons Arts Center. This year, a tour of the show started at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in D.C. and has continued to theaters in Minneapolis; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Melbourne, Australia.

Nilaja’s Obie award-winning solo piece No Child... was directed by Hal Brooks and commissioned and produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble. For her creation and performance of No Child... and its subsequent national tour, Nilaja garnered 21 awards including: an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards (including the John Gassner Playwriting Award for Outstanding New American Play), a Theatre World Award, the Helen Hayes Award, two NAACP Theatre Awards, and was awarded the soloNOVA Award for Artist of the Year by terraNOVA Collective. For Pike St., Nilaja was recently awarded the Edinburgh Award and Ivey Award.

TV/FILM: Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, BrainDead, 30 Rock, Law & Order: SVU, Unforgettable, Louie, The International, and Rubicon.

A native of the Lower East Side, she is a Princess Grace Award recipient and has worked proudly as a teaching artist in New York City for more than 15 years.


Creative Team


Hal Brooks (Director: No Child...)

Hal Brooks is a Brooklyn-based freelance director. He has been Artistic Director of the Cape Cod Theatre Project since 2012, as well as Associate Artistic Director of the Ojai Playwrights Conference since 2010. Recent credits - Regional: Residence (Humana Festival), The Whale (Denver Center), Tigers Be Still (Dallas Theater Center), Six Years (Humana Festival), Be a Good Little Widow (Old Globe). Off Broadway: Nilaja Sun’s No Child..., Will Eno’s Thom Pain (based on nothing), By the Water (Manhattan Theatre Club), Urge for Going (Public Theater), and The Bad Guys (Second Stage). Hal was also the Artistic Director of the Obie Award-winning Pearl Theatre Company. At the Pearl: The Rivals, Uncle Vanya, The Bald Soprano, Don Juan, Figaro, Public Enemy, and The Dingdong. Upcoming: Heisenberg (American Conservatory Theater). Mr. Brooks is a member of LCT Directors Lab, a Drama League Fellow, and a recipient of the NEA/TCG Program for Directors. He has been a lecturer at Yale College since 2010.


Ron Russell (Director: Pike St. / Sound Designer: No Child...)

Ron Russell has co-founded four theatres that still produce today: the nationally- acclaimed Summer Theatre Enrichment Project at El Centro in Lorain, OH (1992); Swine Palace Productions in Louisiana, while receiving his MFA-Directing from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Barry Kyle (1992-1994); UBI Rep Theatre in San Diego (1995); and Epic Theatre Ensemble in 2001. With Epic, where he is Executive Director, he has directed 16 Off-Broadway productions, including world premieres of Kate Fodor’s Hannah and Martin and Vern, Thiessen’s Einstein’s Gift; Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Richard III: Born With Teeth. In other public performances for Epic, he co-adapted and directed a touring in-school Antigone (OBIE Award) and Ibsen’s Pillars of Society (International Ibsen Award, 2011), as well as touring productions of Keith Josef Adkins’ Sugar and Needles and Dominique Morisseau’s Mend. He has also designed sound for award-winning productions of Nilaja Sun’s No Child... (OBIE Award) and Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End. His teaching experience includes over 50 public schools, reaching over 18,000 youth, and his work as an educator in NYC has been recognized by citations from the Municipal Arts Society and Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg.


Jessica Gaffney (Costume Designer: No Child...)

Jessica Gaffney earned her Master of Fine Arts in costume and scenery design at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ms. Gaffney has designed costumes for over 75 theatrical productions for a variety of theatre companies including Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and Regional theatre. Recent credits include Much Ado about Nothing, directed by Christopher Marino for The Alchemical Theatre of Wilmington, and Willy Wonka for the Mill Mountain Theatre. Ms. Gaffney has also designed costumes and scenery for several award-winning film projects.


Cletus Karamon (Lighting Designer: No Child... and Pike St.)

Cletus Karamon is back at home in the Detroit area after being gone for over 25 years. He spent 10 years on Broadway with such shows as: A Bengal Tiger and the Baghdad Zoo (with Robin Williams), Pee Wee Herman on Broadway, 33 Variations (with Jane Fonda), All My Sons (with John Lithgow and Katie Holmes), and Curtains (with David Hyde Pierce), to name a few. Cletus also spent 15 years on the road with 1st National Broadway tours such as Elaine Stritch: at Liberty, ART (with Judd Hirsh), Tallulah (with Kathleen Turner), Kiss Me Kate (with Rachel York and Rex Smith), Bring in Da’ Noise, Bring in Da’ Funk and Jelly’s Last Jam (with Maurice Hine), plus others. He was the lighting supervisor for Damn Yankees, starring Jerry Lewis, on the West End in London. Cletus also worked as the production manager for Miami’s Coconut Playhouses and Parker Playhouse for I Am My Own Wife and Southern Comforted (with Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter).


Clint Ramos (Costume Designer: Pike St.)

Clint Ramos is the recipient of the 2016 Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Play. Notable set/costume designs include the Broadway productions of Eclipsed, The Elephant Man (also West End), and Violet (also with Sutton Foster). He has over 100 regional and international credits. Awards: Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Design, three Lucille Lortel Awards, TDF Irene Sharaff Award, and two American Theater Wing Henry Hewes Awards. Upcoming: In Transit on Broadway, David Byrne’s new musical Joan of Arc: Into the Fire (Public), Kander and Pierce’s Kid Victory (Vineyard). www.clintramos.com