The Artistic Staff
Gregg Mozgala, Artistic Director
Gregg Mozgala is the founder and Artistic Director of The Apothetae, a theatre company dedicated to the production of works that explore and illuminate the, "Disabled Experience." Since 2012, The Apothetae has presented its work at The Public Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kennedy Center, The Lark, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Queens Theatre, The Eugene O'Neil Theatre Center, Florida Studio Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Dixon Place. The company has received support from the Time Warner Foundation, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
The Apothetae's full body of work goes far beyond the production of plays, the company also serves as a platform for a larger conversation around Disability that is not occurring within the cultural sector and society at large. In May 2015, The Apothetae and The Lark hosted the first ever national convening to discuss issues at the nexus of Disability and Theatre. A second convening was held in September 2017 and coincided with the official launch of The Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship. The Fellowship, the first of its kind, includes a two-year residency for a writer who identifies as Disabled, and also provides access to Lark and Apothetae resources, including artistic programs, rehearsal space and staff support.
As an actor, Gregg has been in various productions with Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, La Mama ETC, Theater Breaking Through Barriers, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Kennedy Center. Gregg is a former member of the Obie-award winning playwriting group, Youngblood, at The Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Gregg is the subject and executive producer of the documentary, Enter The Faun that aired on the PBS award winning series, America Reframed. As part of outreach for the documentary, he heads the “Cerebral Posse.” The Posse’s aim is to empower people living with CP by dialoguing honestly and authentically with each other, and by bringing together unlikely collaborators in the medical and arts communities to join with them.
He has been invited to speak about the effects of cerebral palsy at various institutions across the country and around the globe including the Cerebral Palsy Alliance in Sydney, Australia, the Wyss Institute For Biological Engineering at Harvard University, La Rabida Children's Hospital, Eastern Carolina University Medical School, Columbia University Medical School, the Hospital For Special Surgery, University of California at San Francisco Medical School and the Kennedy-Krieger Institute. Gregg has been keynote speaker at United Cerebral Palsy of Oregon and Southwest Washington and the New York City Arts In Education Roundtable.
He is currently serving as a Disability Consultant for Disney Theatrical Group, Queens Theatre, The Lark, Roundabout Theatre Company, National Endowment for the Arts Office of Accessibility and The New York City Mayor's Office for People With Disabilities. He formerly served as a consultant to the New York Foundation for the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs on the development of New York City’s first Cultural Plan.
He was honored as a, "Champion Of Change" by The New York City Mayor's Office For People With Disabilities in 2017, and named a Kennedy Citizen Artist Fellow by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2016.
The Apothetae's full body of work goes far beyond the production of plays, the company also serves as a platform for a larger conversation around Disability that is not occurring within the cultural sector and society at large. In May 2015, The Apothetae and The Lark hosted the first ever national convening to discuss issues at the nexus of Disability and Theatre. A second convening was held in September 2017 and coincided with the official launch of The Apothetae and Lark Playwriting Fellowship. The Fellowship, the first of its kind, includes a two-year residency for a writer who identifies as Disabled, and also provides access to Lark and Apothetae resources, including artistic programs, rehearsal space and staff support.
As an actor, Gregg has been in various productions with Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, La Mama ETC, Theater Breaking Through Barriers, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Kennedy Center. Gregg is a former member of the Obie-award winning playwriting group, Youngblood, at The Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Gregg is the subject and executive producer of the documentary, Enter The Faun that aired on the PBS award winning series, America Reframed. As part of outreach for the documentary, he heads the “Cerebral Posse.” The Posse’s aim is to empower people living with CP by dialoguing honestly and authentically with each other, and by bringing together unlikely collaborators in the medical and arts communities to join with them.
He has been invited to speak about the effects of cerebral palsy at various institutions across the country and around the globe including the Cerebral Palsy Alliance in Sydney, Australia, the Wyss Institute For Biological Engineering at Harvard University, La Rabida Children's Hospital, Eastern Carolina University Medical School, Columbia University Medical School, the Hospital For Special Surgery, University of California at San Francisco Medical School and the Kennedy-Krieger Institute. Gregg has been keynote speaker at United Cerebral Palsy of Oregon and Southwest Washington and the New York City Arts In Education Roundtable.
He is currently serving as a Disability Consultant for Disney Theatrical Group, Queens Theatre, The Lark, Roundabout Theatre Company, National Endowment for the Arts Office of Accessibility and The New York City Mayor's Office for People With Disabilities. He formerly served as a consultant to the New York Foundation for the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs on the development of New York City’s first Cultural Plan.
He was honored as a, "Champion Of Change" by The New York City Mayor's Office For People With Disabilities in 2017, and named a Kennedy Citizen Artist Fellow by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2016.
Moritz von Stuelpnagel, Associate
Moritz von Stuelpnagel is a TONY nominated director and the former Artistic Director of Studio 42, New York’s producer of “unproducible” plays. Recent New York credits include Robert Askins’ Hand to God and Daniel Reitz’s Turnabout both at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mel & El: Show & Tell at Ars Nova, Gary Sunshine’s Best Sex Ever at Rising Phoenix Rep, Michael Mitnick’s Spacebar: A Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman, and Adam Szymkowicz’s My Base and Scurvy Heart both at Studio 42. Regionally, his work has been seen at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Kennedy Center, Millbrook Playhouse, American Stage Festival, the Red Barn of Key West, Allentown Shakespeare in the Park, and Boston Playwrights Theatre. Moritz has also helped develop new plays at the Lark, NYTW, Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theatre, Dramatists Guild, Ma-Yi, New River Dramatists, Partial Comfort, 2G, TBTB, Williamstown, Astoria Performing Arts Center and Young Playwrights. He is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and a frequent collaborator with Youngblood, EST’s collective of playwrights under 30. He was the associate director for Broadway’s Tony-nominated Cry-Baby, and has served as assistant director to Mark Brokaw, Nicholas Martin, Anna D. Shapiro, Dominic Cooke, Marion McClinton, Kate Whoriskey, David Petrarca, Darko Tresnjak, Michael John Garcés, Chris Shinn, and others. He has been a Resident Director at Playwrights Horizons, The Acting Company, and the Huntington Theatre Company. 2005: Drama League’s Fall Directing Fellowship; 2007: Boris Sagal Fellowship at Williamstown. Moritz is an adjunct instructor at Fordham University, and has been a guest director at over a dozen universities, including Juilliard, NYU, Rutgers Mason Gross, Boston University, Fordham, University of Rochester, and Connecticut College.
Sara Buffamanti, Associate/Head of Education & Applied Practice
Sara Buffamanti earned her MFA in acting and theater from Columbia University. She has worked as both an actress and a director in the U.S., Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy and Scotland. Her movement mentors are world-renowned clown and mime James Donlon and Romanian performer and director Nikolaus Wolcz. In New York City her work has been seen at PS 122, Dixon Place, HERE, The Metropolitan Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Public and New York Theater Workshop. Sara is the creator of Eleanor Alla Barre, a one-woman clown show, and also stars in the upcoming feature film Maybe There’s a Tree by Ashlin Halfnight.
Sara is a Designated Linklater Teacher as well as Associate Director of Education and full-time faculty member at the New York Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts.
Sara is a Designated Linklater Teacher as well as Associate Director of Education and full-time faculty member at the New York Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts.
The Playwrights
Todd Bauer
Todd Bauer is a blind playwright, director, and lecturer. His play The Bird Feeder Doesn’t Know will receive a workshop production at Raven Theatre in Chicago in May 2015. In 2011 he directed John Milton’s Samson Agonistes at the University of Notre Dame, the first time the work was fully realized. He has also directed programs exploring the role of disability in the works of Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago. He was awarded an NEA Challenge America Grant while a visiting artist with Visible Theatre in New York. Todd received a fellowship from the Ragdale foundation in 2008 and was nominated for a 3Arts Artist Award in 2011. Reading of his play Downsizing Camus have been held at the Biograph Theater in Chicago, at Theater Breaking Through Barriers in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. A production of Downsizing Camus was presented by The Apothetae at The Brooklyn Academy of Music in July 2015 as part of Cripfest.
Todd has taught British and American drama at the Newberry Library in Chicago for ten years, and was the American correspondent for Beat Scene magazine from 1994–2000. He earned a B.A. in accounting from Miami University and an M.A. in English literature from Northwestern University. His childhood home was destroyed by a tornado; he has been evacuated for a hurricane; and he has been stranded by a volcano eruption. Todd has also run a marathons and lived with indigenous tribes in the Amazon and Indonesia.
Todd has taught British and American drama at the Newberry Library in Chicago for ten years, and was the American correspondent for Beat Scene magazine from 1994–2000. He earned a B.A. in accounting from Miami University and an M.A. in English literature from Northwestern University. His childhood home was destroyed by a tornado; he has been evacuated for a hurricane; and he has been stranded by a volcano eruption. Todd has also run a marathons and lived with indigenous tribes in the Amazon and Indonesia.
Emily Chadick Weiss
Emily Chadick Weiss is a four-time EST/Alfred P. Sloan Grant recipient, and has had her work developed or performed through The Araca Group, at The Atlantic Theater, The Cherry Lane Theatre, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, The 52nd Street Project and by Theater Breaking Through Barriers at the Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row. Emily was a finalist for the Heideman Award through The Actors Theatre of Louisville, a finalist for the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Original Short Play Festival, and a finalist for the Austin Film Festival. She is a three-time winner of the Agnes Nixon Playwriting Contest at Northwestern University, and a winner of Young Playwrights Inc. National Playwriting Contest. Emily is a member of the Obie-award winning playwriting group, Youngblood, at The Ensemble Studio Theatre and has been a member of the Dramatists Guild since 2003. Emily was recently called a "rising star" by the New York Times, and is the Creator and Producer of the Sitcom Pilot, “The Share.”
Clay McLeod Chapman
Clay McLeod Chapman is the author of "rest area," a collection of short stories, and "miss corpus," a novel. "Miss corpus" was recognized in part of The New Yorker's "Reading Glasses" series in 2003.
Currently, he is writing a trilogy of children's novels titled "The Tribe"—book one, "Homeroom Headhunters," hits the shelves in 2013 on Hyperion books.
Recently, Chapman's story “the battle of belle isle” was featured in Akashic Books’ regional-noir anthology “Richmond Noir.” He was a contributing author on “The Rolling Darkness Revue,” a roaming reading-series of horror writers created by Glen Hirshberg and Pete Atkins, culminating in the anthology At The Sign of the Snowman’s Skull. He was a contributing author to One Ring Zero's "As Smart As We Are" album, featuring such writers as Paul Auster and Jonathan Lethem. He will occasionally write from time to time for his geek-gods Marvel Comics (Ultimate Spider-Man) and Fangoria Magazine.
Chapman’s story "late bloomer" was adapted into film by director Craig Macneill. An official selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, the short won the audience award for Best Short at the Lake Placid Film Festival and the Brown Jenkins Award at the 12th Annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. Their most recent collaboration, “Henley,” a short film based on the chapter “The Henley Road Motel” from his novel "miss corpus," was an official selection at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. It was awarded Best Short Film at the 2011 Gen Art Film Festival and the 2011 Carmel Arts and Film Festival.
Upcoming films include the sci-fried feature "White Space," starring Holt McCallany, co-written with Ryan Colucci and directed by Ken Locsmandi.
Chapman is the creator of the rigorous storytelling session The Pumpkin Pie Show. In its ten-plus years of existence, it has performed internationally at the Romanian Theatre Festival of Sibiu, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the New York International Fringe Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, the Edmonton Fringe Festival, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the Dublin-based thisisnotashop art space, IGNITE Festival, the Women Center Stage Festival and the Impact Theatre Festival. The Pumpkin Pie Show continues to perform in New York City annually with long-time scene-stealer Hanna Cheek.
Chapman has written the book for the musical Hostage Song with music and lyrics by Obie-winning Kyle Jarrow. He also wrote the book for SCKBSTD, a new musical with Grammy-winner Bruce Hornsby. He is the author of such plays as "commencement," "teaser cow," "JULIAN," "bar flies," "lee’s miserables," "No Exitway," "duct-tape to family-time," "drinking games," "redbird," "jewish mothers," "junta high," "nested doll," "the interstate and on," "the cardiac shadow" and "volume of smoke." Stage versions of his short stories “birdfeeder” and “undertow” were selected for publication in The Best American Short Plays: 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 anthologies.
Chapman was educated at the North Carolina School of the Arts for Drama, the Burren College of Art, and Sarah Lawrence College. He currently teaches writing at The Actors Studio MFA Program at Pace University.
Currently, he is writing a trilogy of children's novels titled "The Tribe"—book one, "Homeroom Headhunters," hits the shelves in 2013 on Hyperion books.
Recently, Chapman's story “the battle of belle isle” was featured in Akashic Books’ regional-noir anthology “Richmond Noir.” He was a contributing author on “The Rolling Darkness Revue,” a roaming reading-series of horror writers created by Glen Hirshberg and Pete Atkins, culminating in the anthology At The Sign of the Snowman’s Skull. He was a contributing author to One Ring Zero's "As Smart As We Are" album, featuring such writers as Paul Auster and Jonathan Lethem. He will occasionally write from time to time for his geek-gods Marvel Comics (Ultimate Spider-Man) and Fangoria Magazine.
Chapman’s story "late bloomer" was adapted into film by director Craig Macneill. An official selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, the short won the audience award for Best Short at the Lake Placid Film Festival and the Brown Jenkins Award at the 12th Annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. Their most recent collaboration, “Henley,” a short film based on the chapter “The Henley Road Motel” from his novel "miss corpus," was an official selection at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. It was awarded Best Short Film at the 2011 Gen Art Film Festival and the 2011 Carmel Arts and Film Festival.
Upcoming films include the sci-fried feature "White Space," starring Holt McCallany, co-written with Ryan Colucci and directed by Ken Locsmandi.
Chapman is the creator of the rigorous storytelling session The Pumpkin Pie Show. In its ten-plus years of existence, it has performed internationally at the Romanian Theatre Festival of Sibiu, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the New York International Fringe Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, the Edmonton Fringe Festival, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the Dublin-based thisisnotashop art space, IGNITE Festival, the Women Center Stage Festival and the Impact Theatre Festival. The Pumpkin Pie Show continues to perform in New York City annually with long-time scene-stealer Hanna Cheek.
Chapman has written the book for the musical Hostage Song with music and lyrics by Obie-winning Kyle Jarrow. He also wrote the book for SCKBSTD, a new musical with Grammy-winner Bruce Hornsby. He is the author of such plays as "commencement," "teaser cow," "JULIAN," "bar flies," "lee’s miserables," "No Exitway," "duct-tape to family-time," "drinking games," "redbird," "jewish mothers," "junta high," "nested doll," "the interstate and on," "the cardiac shadow" and "volume of smoke." Stage versions of his short stories “birdfeeder” and “undertow” were selected for publication in The Best American Short Plays: 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 anthologies.
Chapman was educated at the North Carolina School of the Arts for Drama, the Burren College of Art, and Sarah Lawrence College. He currently teaches writing at The Actors Studio MFA Program at Pace University.
Ashlin Halfnight
Ashlin Halfnight’s plays include Second Life (2012 O’Neill Playwright’s Conference Finalist), A Hard Wall at High Speed (Directed by May Adrales, APAC) Balaton (Nominated for Best Play of 2009, NYITA), Good Pictures (Outstanding New Play – 2008 Talkin’ Broadway), God’s Waiting Room (Best Play, 2005 NYFringe), Diving Normal (Plays and Playwrights 2007), and Artifacts of Consequence. He is a Fulbright Award winner, is the recipient of a TCG Grant, The Ludwig Volgelstein Artist Grant, and the Howard Stein Playwriting Fellowship. In 2011, he was named one of nytheatre.com’s People of the Year for exceptional contributions to New York theater. He was an artist in residence at the National Theater of Hungary in 2005/2006, and received a New York residency with The Royal Court; he is also a proud member of MCC’s Playwrights’ Coalition, and a Resident Playwright at the Railroad Playhouse. Ashlin received a BA from Harvard and an MFA in playwriting from Columbia; he has been on faculty at New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, and The Studio New York, and has been a guest lecturer at The Actor’s Studio and in Brooklyn College’s MFA program. His plays have been translated and performed in Canada, The US, and Europe. His upcoming films include Northbound – with Gordon Pinsent – Survival Box, Maybe There's A Tree and Ashlin's screen adaptation of his play Diving Normal, starring Carly Pope.
Michael Lew
Mike Lew’s plays include Tiger Style! (O’Neill workshop; Juilliard and InterAct readings), Bike America (Ma-Yi, NYC; Alliance, Atlanta; Juilliard, Lark, Kennedy Center, and Playwrights Foundation workshops); microcrisis (Ma-Yi, NYC; InterAct, Philly; Next Act, Milwaukee); Stockton (AracaWorks and EST workshops); People’s Park (Victory Gardens workshop); Tenure(24 Hour Plays on Broadway), In Paris You will Find Many Baguettes… (Humana); Roanoke (Humana); and Moustache Guys. Several of his short plays are published by Playscripts. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild Council and the recipient of the Lanford Wilson Award, Helen Merrill Award, a NYFA fellowship in playwriting, the Kendeda and AracaWorks Grad Playwriting Awards, Heideman Award, Pacific/Rim Prize, and is a Sam French Festival Winner. He is co-director of Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the largest collective of Asian-American playwrights in the country, and serves on the Members' Council of Ensemble Studio Theater. He is also a former staff writer for Blue Man Group, Bon Appetit, and PBS Kids’ PEG+CAT, and an alumnus of Youngblood and TCG Young Leaders of Color. He is married to fellow playwright, Rehana Lew Mirza, who he met in Ma-Yi Lab (read the story here). Training: Juilliard (2013), Yale (2003).
Technical & Production Staff
Heather Helinsky, Dramaturg
Heather Helinsky is a dramaturg that playwrights have recognizes as “especially adept at freeing energies in unexpected ways. She encourages discovery.” Nationally, her dramaturgical work has been seen at American Repertory Theatre, Arizona Repertory Theatre, Borderlands Theatre Company, Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Kennedy Center, The Lark, Miracle Theatre in Portland, Moscow Art Theatre’s American Studio, Omaha Community Playhouse, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Salt Lake Acting Company, Telluride Playwrights Festival, and Woolly Mammoth. She was the 2008 recipient of the Beatrice, Benjamin, and Richard Bader Fellowship for the Visual Art of Theatre at Houghton Library and has been the Literary Manager of the Pittsburgh Public Theatre. Last season, she was part of the National New Play Network’s rolling world premiere of Caridad Svich’s Guapa and Constance Congdon’s Take Me to the River. Teaching includes National Dramaturgy Coordinator at KCACTF (’12 & ’13), Visiting Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy at University of Arizona (’07-08) and Carnegie Mellon University (’12-13). Her M.F.A. in Dramaturgy and Theatre Studies is from American Repertory Theatre/Moscow Art Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard. Member of LMDA.
Sharon Mashihi, Media Manager
Sharon Mashihi is a radio producer and screenwriter. She works regularly with WNYC’s Studio 360 as well as Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin. She is also a co-founder/director of the Brooklyn performance series Radio Cabaret. Sharon studied film at New York University and radio documentary at the Salt Institute. Her most recent feature length screenplay is being produced by Wendy Japhet and Killer Films.