Cast

• Obehi Janice
  
  
• Steve Sarro
  Music Director/Piano
  
• Thom Dunn
  Bass
  
• Shahjehan Khan
  Guitar
  
• Ethan Selby
  Drums
  

PLAYWRIGHT & PRODUCTION STAFF

• Young Jean Lee
  Playwright
• Shawn LaCount
  Director
• Michelle Villada
  Costume Designer
• Justin Paice
  Lighting Designer
• Lindsey Anderson
  Sound Designer
• Ilana M. Brownstein
  Dramaturg
• Alexandra Juckno
  Dramaturg
• Misha Shields
  Choreographer
• Emily Brown
  Stage Manager
• Hannah Estabrook
  Assistant Stage Manager

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  Obehi Janice
  www.obehijanice.com​
  OBEHI JANICE is an actress, writer, and comedian from Lowell, Massachusetts, and is the TCG Fox Foundation Resident Actor at Company One Theatre. Recent credits include AN OCTOROON (Company One & ArtsEmerson), MR G (Underground Railway Theater), her solo play FUFU & OREOS (Bridge Rep), ARABIAN NIGHTS (Central Square Theater), IT FELT EMPTY (Theatre on Fire), and SPLENDOR (Company One). She is a graduate of Georgetown University. The Improper Bostonian named her “Boston’s Best Actress” in 2014.

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  Steve Sarro
  Steve Sarro is excited to be making his debut with Company One. His recent credits include music directing GOD HATES MUSICALS (Ministry of Theater) and serving as music assistant for BIG FISH (SpeakEasy). He regularly performs as music director for Mainstage and Touring Company shows at ImprovBoston in Cambridge where he also teaches musical improv, and he is also a music director for Artbarn Community Theater in Brookline.

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  Thom Dunn
  thomdunn.net
  Thom Dunn rocks out and tells stories, professionally. He is a published poet and comic book author, a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theatre Company, and a staff writer for Upworthy; when he’s not doing that, he’s writing, recording, and/or performing in various musical projects. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” is the single greatest atrocity ever committed against mankind.

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  Shahjehan Khan
  Shahjehan, a Massachusetts native, has been performing in one way or another for more than 20 years. He is currently a working actor and educator with The Improbable Players, and most notably is a founding member of The Kominas, a South-Asian punk band that has toured all over the world since 2005. We’re Gonna Die is his first foray into performing with a professional theatrical ensemble as a musician, and he’d like to thank CompanyOne for this incredible opportunity.

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  Ethan Selby
  Ethan is thrilled to be involved in his first production with Company One and third project working with Steve Sarro. He has been playing drums since he was thirteen years of age with the same drumset that he is playing for this show. He has played for several different rock bands throughout his career as well as many musical productions including BOSTON’S UNSCRIPTED MUSICAL PROJECT (BUMP), IMPROV BOSTON’S GOREFEST 2014, and IMPROV BOSTON’S HOLIDAY SHOW. He thanks you for supporting live theatre and hopes you enjoy the show.

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  Young Jean Lee
  YOUNG JEAN LEE is a writer, director, and filmmaker who has been called “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by the New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by Time Out New York. She has written and directed ten shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. Her plays have been published by Theatre Communications Group (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays; The Shipment and Lear; andWe’re Gonna Die) and by Samuel French (Three Plays by Young Jean Lee). She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and has written a screenplay commission for Plan B/Paramount Pictures. Her first short film, Here Come the Girls, was presented at The Locarno International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and BAMcinemaFest. In 2013, she released her debut album, We’re Gonna Die, with her band, Future Wife. Lee is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Doris Duke Artist Residency, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant, and the ZKB Patronage Prize of the Zürcher Theater Spektakel. She has also received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller MAP Fund, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Creative Capital, the Greenwall Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Arts Presenters/Ford Foundation Creative Capacity Grant, the Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation, and the New England Foundation for the Arts: National Theater Project Award.

• Shawn LaCount
  Shawn is a proud co-founder of Company One Theatre. Recent directorial credits include the regional premiere of Annie Baker's THE FLICK (Elliot Norton Award, Outstanding Production); the world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge's SPLENDOR (IRNE Award nominee, Best New Play); the Boston premieres of BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO by Rajiv Joseph; THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY by Kristoffer Diaz (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director and Outstanding Production); Annie Baker's THE ALIENS (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director and Outstanding Production), the world premiere of GRIMM (IRNE Award nominee for Best New Play), the Boston premiere of THE OVERWHELMING by JT Rogers (Elliot Norton Award nominee for Outstanding Drama, Fringe); the Boston premiere of Haruki Murakami’s AFTER THE QUAKE (Elliot Norton Award nominee for Outstanding Drama, Fringe); Stephen Sondheim’s ASSASSINS (IRNE nomination for Best Director and Best Musical); the Boston premiere of Noah Haidle’s MR. MARMALADE (Elliot Norton Award nominee for Outstanding Director/Outstanding Drama); the Boston premiere of AFTER ASHLEY by Gina Gionfriddo; and Anthony Burgess’ A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (featuring original music by the Dresden Dolls). Local academic directing credits include Adam Rapp's PARAFFIN and NURSING at Emerson Stage. Shawn holds an MA Ed. in theatre Education from Clark University and an MFA in Directing from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has taught at the Boston Arts Academy, Huntington Theatre Company, Tufts University, Stage One and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Shawn is deeply grateful to the entire C1 family and of course to his wife Jessica, his sisters Terri & Cacia, and his children Shiloh and Levi.

• Michelle Villada
  Michelle Villada is a Boston native who is excited to work with Company One as the Costume Designer for “WE’RE GONNA DIE!” She has a B.S. from Framingham State University in Fashion Design and Retailing and lives and designs by the motto “All dress is costume”. Prior to working with Company One Michelle has designed costumes for The Watertown Children’s Theatre, The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts and has done costume work for ArtsEmerson.

• Justin Paice
  Past credits include SHOCKHEADED PETER (Company One), ASTROBOY AND THE GOD OF COMICS (Company One), SHE KILLS MONSTERS (Company One), ACOUSTICA ELECTRONICA (Touch Performance Art), THE SHIPMENT (ART Institute), A BRIGHT NEW BOISE (ART Institute), THE FINAL CUT (ART Institute), THE FOURTH GRADERS PRESENT (ART Institute), and THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW (Gold Dust Orphans/Oberon). He is thankful for everyone, but most of all for his wife Ashley.

• Lindsey Anderson
  Lindsey is thrilled to be working on her 2nd show with Company One. Past credits include DISTANT NEIGHBORS (Sound Designer) SHIVER (Sound Designer) CLYBOURNE PARK (Sound Designer), AN OCTOROON(Assistant Stage Manager) and CHALK (Assistant Stage Manager). When she's not assistant stage managing or sound designing, she can be found at a concert, eating pizza, hosting 'The Key Of E' on Zumix radio every Saturday at 1pm or napping. She’s beyond thankful to her friends and family for their support, and to Company One for another rad opportunity!

• Alexandra Juckno
  Alexandra is happy to return to C1, where she last served as dramaturg on EDITH CAN SHOOT THINGS AND HIT THEM. Alexandra completed her MFA in Dramaturgy at the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute. A.R.T. credits include dramaturgy for TWELFTH NIGHT (A.R.T. Institute), THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD, and John Tiffany's Tony-nominated production of THE GLASS MENAGERIE. Alexandra also spent a summer as a Production Assistant intern for Barter Theatre of Virginia's Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, 2011.

• Misha Shields
  Misha is a dance & aerial circus choreographer based in the NYC and Boston areas. Credit highlights: Who's Your Baghdaddy? Or How I Started The Iraq War (Off-Broadway, Actor's Temple), The Orion Experience (Off-Broadway, XL Nightclub), Milk Like Sugar (Huntington Theatre), Merrily We Roll Along (APAC, NY), Rocky Horror Show (Yale/Dramat), Follies (Theater Works, AZ), The Travels (Ford Foundation/NYMF), Cabaret, and Sunday In The Park... (Boston Conservatory). Upcoming: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (APAC, NY). Love to Ben. www.mishashields.com

• Emily Brown
  Emily Brown is a graduate of McGill University's english drama program. She moved to Boston last August, and since arriving here she's worked on Company One's Dry Land and An Octoroon as an assistant stage manager, and at The Theater Offensive as an assistant production manager. She's thrilled to be back stage managing with a wonderful team for Company One's We're Gonna Die.

• Hannah Estabrook
  Hannah Estabrook (Assistant Stage Manager) Hannah is a Boston-based theatre artist. Hannah is delighted to be working on her first production with Company One. Her recent production credits include Assistant Stage Manager for Bridge Rep's production of The Launch Prize and Light Board Operator for Speak Easy Stage Company's production of The Whale. Hannah is currently a production intern for Bridge Rep.

>>DRAMATURGY BLOG 

Want a peak into the rehearsal room? Click here to check out our dramaturgy blog for insight into the play and production process. Don’t see what your looking for? Ask a dramaturg!

>>POST-SHOW PANELS AND PERFORMANCES

Die Laughing: Finding Humor in Mortality
Sunday, April 24th
Following the 4pm performance

Join us for a conversation with Nina Thompson from the Wake Up to Dying Project and Dr. Robert Riethmiller from the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. We’ll be chatting about why conversations centered on mortality and loss are so difficult, and how people can approach these touchy subjects with less anxiety, and more humor and joy.

Dancing with Death: Exploring What Comes After in Story, Poetry & Comedy
Tuesday, April 26th
Following the 7:30pm performance

After the show, catch a line-up of up-and-coming storytellers, poets, and stand-up comics performing work inspired by the themes of We’re Gonna Die. Co-hosted by Erich Hagun and Anthony Febo, this event also features Carissa Halston, Wes Hazard, Gary Peterson, Tooky Kavanagh, Princess Moon, and Srilatha Rajamani.

Crafting Change: Finding Resilience Through Storytelling
Wednesday, April 27th
Following the 7:30pm performance

We’re chatting with a few of Boston’s very best storytellers about their craft and how the medium of storytelling can create change. Gina James from The Moth, Katie Liesener from MassMouth, Corianna Moffatt from the Impossible Questions Tour, and Misch Whitaker from Stories Without Roofs will share their insights about the way stories impact listeners, and invite our audience to create powerful narratives of their own. Audiences will have the chance to create 6-word-stories as part of Michele Norris’ Race Card Project.

Dancing with Death: Exploring What Comes After in Story, Poetry & Comedy
Thursday, April 28th
Following the 7:30pm performance

Join us for our second night of storytellers, poets, and stand-up comics performing work inspired by the themes of We’re Gonna Die. Ken Green and Payal Sharma co-host the evening, which also includes Nick Chambers, DiDi Delgado, Krysten Hill, Steven LaFond, Laura Severse, and Jade Sylvan.

Stay tuned for information on special events!

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