This November, the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance (DVAA) is delighted to present On Belonging at the Tusten Theatre in Narrowsburg. Part-funded by a Sullivan 180 grant, On Belonging is an initiative by Standing People Together Theatre to draw on the voices of the community: “We aim to highlight the issues surrounding the concept of ‘belonging’ and ‘place’, to raise awareness of their connection to well-being and health and to start a conversation which we hope will lead to a greater civic muscle in Sullivan County.”
THE PLAYS
Cathedral by Laura E. J. Moran
Diner by Tiffany Esteb
The Birthday List by Greg Thomas
The Crossing by Cynthia Nash
CAST & CREATIVES
Playwrights
• Laura E. J. Moran has lived in the Upper Delaware River valley for 23 years. She is a visual artist, writer, performer, educator, and currently manages the Delaware Free Branch of the Western Sullivan Public Library in Callicoon. Laura holds a M.F.A. in Creative Writing and attended the Lincoln Center Teaching Artist Leadership Lab in 2019. She also collects oral histories and is passionate about where we live and how that makes us who we are. Her semi-autobiographical work, Desire Line, was published in 2015 by Stockport Flats Press and was presented at NACL Theater, The Catskill Arts Society and, in collaboration with the international interdisciplinary project SEED, in Berlin and Kuivalahti, Finland, 2020 and 2024.
• Tiffany Esteb is an actress-writer who has participated in many black box theater productions in NYC as well as indie films. She studied with actor/director, Austin Pendleton, and at the LAByrinth Theater in NYC and, in London, with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Tiffany has a master’s degree in international relations/human rights from Columbia University and works on political campaigns, and for not-for-profit organizations.
• Greg Thomas is a performer and playwright originally from Central Connecticut. He is a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University’s Drama Department (BFA ‘87) and The New School’s creative writing department (MFA ‘04). Playwrighting works include: The Birthday List (‘24), Daniel/Jean (‘23), Another Shore (‘23), and NeverSaid (‘89). He recently performed the role of Serge in River Rep Theatre’s production of “ART” at the Delaware Valley Opera this past summer.
• Cynthia Nash settled in the Upper Delaware River Valley after years in New York City where she worked in theater, concert production, music management, and advertising. Over 25 years ago, she became the owner of Innisfree, a local landmark near the historic Skinners Falls Bridge. Recently, her editorials and photography have been published in The River Reporter and the Scranton Times Tribune. As a multidisciplinary artist, she is currently producing and writing TIMBER, a documentary about trees and their enthusiasts, in collaboration with director Paul Aresu. Her photo essay, THE HUSTINGS, focused on the 2024 election, appears weekly in The River Reporter. She is the proud mother of actress Isabel Sheehan.
Actors
• Ellie J, also known as Clown Daddy, is honored to be working with Standing People Together on this provocative series of short plays. Having trained at Atlantic Theatre Company through NYU Tisch and, subsequently, L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, she delights in honing her skills of performance wherever she can. Favorite characters include playing Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, King Midas/Aphrodite in Metamorphosis, and Pedrolino in A Gap in Generations. You can find what she’s currently up to by visiting www.clowndaddypresents.com.
• Nick Lopez hails from Albuquerque New Mexico where Breaking Bad comes from, and he wants you to know that everything in that show is all true. He received his BA in theater from the University of New Mexico and later his MFA in performance from West Virginia University. Past roles include Edmund from King Lear, Macbeth from Macbeth, and Leontes from A Winter’s Tale. Other roles include Picasso from Picasso at The Lapin Agile and Bick from Assassins. When Nick isn’t acting, he teaches and directs theater and communication for the New York prison system. He sends his love to Jessie and Zia and hopes you enjoy the show.
• Erinn Gilmore made her first stage appearance as Daniela in Lin-Miranda’s In the Heights musical in the Seelig Theatre at SUNY Sullivan. Born in New York, she made her way to California where she debuted in her first short film, Unborn. Since then, she has also played Olivia in Shakespeare’s The Twelfth Night. She has performed in three ten-minute plays at the Rivoli Theater earning her three Meritorious Awards in Acting by TANYS. Since she has starred in the playful comedy Fairview as Beverly. As an extrovert, Erinn loves to travel, meet new people, and explore nature while living life to the fullest. Erinn also has an artist eye and designed her own clothing brand, GIFTD Apparel.
• Cass Collins has a BFA in Acting from Emerson College. She was a founding member of The Open Door Theater of Boston and performed as Pozzo in their production of Waiting for Godot. She has performed locally with NACL as Queen Cumulous in The Weather Project; with Sullivan County Dramatic Workshop as Martha; in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (for which she won an Excellence in Acting award from the Theater Association of New York State). She has done lots of experimental theater, straight theater, some TV, a music video and stand-up comedy. Cass starred in Standing People Together’s 2003 production, Half Life, at the Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre.
• Eric Feinblatt was an inaugural actor with William Russo’s, Chicago Free Theater, a rock- based, multimedia and music-theater company, which performed politically charged original productions (The Civil War, Liberation, Joan of Arc, Song of Songs) in Chicago and New York. Eric helped establish an East Coast satellite Free Theater that performed out of Philip Arnoult’s experimental theater venue, the Baltimore Theater Project and collaborated with the Iowa Theater Lab during their residency there. Eric joined the Winter/Summer Institute in 2006 for their collaborative international theater-making project around HIV/AIDS in Lesotho. He is the director of Caroline and his not-for-profit organization, Waste for Life.
Directors
• Caroline Baillie is an educator, theatre director, and author. She launched her UK based theatre company, Critical Stage, in London 1998. In the subsequent years she produced and directed more than 25 shows and multiple workshops and training programs across England, Australia, and Canada before arriving in Hankins, NY in 2017, when she and Eric launched Standing People Together. Her productions have always focused on raising awareness of social issues including homelessness, domestic abuse, mental health, teenage pregnancy, and at-risk youth.
• Eric Feinblatt is an educator, photographer, and film maker with a background in Theatre for Development and Augusto Boal’s, Theatre of the Oppressed. Caroline and Eric met at the launch of his show about HIV Aids in Lesotho Africa, and the rest, as they say, is history. Their previous co-directing collaboration was the 2003 production of the play, Half Life, at the Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre.
Musicians
• Poison Love Band presents a dynamic blend of acoustic new-Americana featuring lead fiddle, guitar, percussion, and original songwriting. Our unique sound is shaped by influences from the Wild West, Brooklyn, and the Catskills, combining 1960-70s Country, Rock, and Folk with a rural Upper Delaware River Valley twist. We bring to the stage rich harmonies, infectious rhythms and heartfelt storytelling. The band is committed to community building through the shared experience of live performance.
