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EST Re:Members

EST Re:Members

Written by: Ensemble Studio Theatre
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 EST Re: Members is a podcast featuring interviews with Ensemble Studio Theatre's member artists, hosted by Rachel Lin. We go behind the scenes with the theatre makers who've played on the EST stage in Hell's Kitchen, New York - from the company's founding in 1968 right up to the present. Join us as we hear the life story of EST from the people who've lived it, and celebrate the decades of works-in-progress created by these artists!2024 Art Entertainment & Performing Arts
Episodes
  • Tony Award-winning Directors: Danya Taymor & Jerry Zaks, In Conversation

    Tony Award-winning Directors: Danya Taymor & Jerry Zaks, In Conversation
    Sep 18 2025
    Welcome to the 3rd and final episode of the season, and we are going out with a bang! Founding EST member and four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, and 2024 Tony Award winner and two-time consecutive Tony Award nominee Danya Taymor, join our host Rachel Lin to discuss their rocket-fueled trajectories, their rehearsal room must-haves, and how they cope with disappointment. If you're a theater lover, you won't want to miss this conversation between two of Broadway's leading stage directors. Download or share this episode with a friend to keep the conversation going! Until next season...we'll see you at the theater! DANYA TAYMOR is a Tony and Obie Award-winning New York-based director. Recent direction includes the Broadway productions of the Tony Award-winning musical The Outsiders, Kimberly Belflower's John Proctor is the Villain (Tony Nomination, Dama Desk, OCC Awards), Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu's Pass Over (now streaming on Amazon Prime). Off-Broadway and International: Will Arbery's Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons, Callaway Award for Direction, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Lortel Outstanding Play) + Evanston Salt Costs Climbing (New Group), Emmanuel Mattana's Trophy Boys (MCC), Rachel Bonds' Jonah (Roundabout), Samuel Beckett's Endgame (Gate Theater, Dublin), Jeremy O. Harris' Daddy (Almeida, London + New Group/Vineyard), Nassim Soleimanpour's Mr. K and the Flowers (Audible), Korde Arrington Tuttle's Graveyard Shift (Goodman Theatre), Pass Over (Lincoln Center + Steppenwolf, Lortel Outstanding Play), Danai Gurira's Familiar (Steppenwolf), Martyna Majok's Queens (Lincoln Center Theater), among many others. Translations include Alejandro Ricaño's We Are Getting Better at Saying Goodbye, Luis Enrique Guitierrez Ortiz Monasterio's I Hate Fucking Mexicans, and Ettore Scola's Working on a Special Day. Awards and fellowships include the Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity from Lincoln Center, Time Warner Directing Fellowship at Women's Project, 2050 fellowship at New York Theatre Workshop, Van Lier Directing Fellowship, Gates Foundation Grant, Rough Draft Residency at the Drama League and the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. BA: Duke University. JERRY ZAKS most recently directed his 26th Broadway show, The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. He has received four Tony Awards and been nominated eight times. He began his career directing the extraordinary plays of Christopher Durang and John Guare. He directed the award-winning film  Marvin's Room, starring Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton. Mr. Zaks is a founding member of the Ensemble Studio Theater. He received the SDC's George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1967, received an MFA from Smith College in 1969, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Dartmouth in 1999. He is a 2013 inductee to the Theatre Hall of Fame.

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    Host & Producer: Rachel Lin

    Sound Engineer & Designer: Rebecca Seidel

    Artwork by: Harrison Densmore

    Music By: Wendy Marcini

    Brought to you by: Ensemble Studio Theatre
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    47 mins
  • Leaders in Theater: Mia Katigbak & Elizabeth Van Dyke, in Conversation

    Leaders in Theater: Mia Katigbak & Elizabeth Van Dyke, in Conversation
    Aug 21 2025

    Mia Katigbak and Elizabeth Van Dyke didn't set out to run theaters...but now both are at the helms of historic companies: the National Asian American Theatre Company and New Federal Theatre, respectively. In this episode, they discuss how they found themselves in these positions, and the importance of creating roles for their communities. Listen in as Elizabeth, Mia, and our host, Rachel Lin, travel down memory lane to the 90s, when Elizabeth first brought the Going to the River Festival to Curt Dempster, and Mia ushered NAATCO into existence. The three talk about how things have changed since then, and what it means to make theater in the current landscape.

    Mia Katigbak. Selected NYC theatre: Deep Blue Sound (Clubbed Thumb/Public Theater); Uncle Vanya (Lincoln Center); Infinite Life (Atlantic Theater; National in London); Henry VI (NAATCO, St. Clair Bayfield Award); Scenes From a Marriage (NYTW); Awake and Sing! (NAATCO, Obie Award). Virtual: What If If Only (Caryl Churchill, US Premiere), Russian Troll Farm. Other NYC: Transport Group, Ma-Yi, NYTW, New Georges, WP, Soho Rep. Regional: Berkeley Repertory (world premiere of Jiehae Park's the aves), Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Two River Theater, Guthrie. TV: "How to Get Away With Murder," "The Sinner." USA Fellow; Special Drama Desk Award; Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement; Actor-Manager & Co-Founder, NAATCO.

    Elizabeth Van Dyke is a New York based. Producing Artistic Director of New Federal Theatre, award- winning Actress and Director. She has received an AUDELCO Nomination for Best Director for Great Men of Gospel; an ONYX Award for Best Director for Sophisticated Ladies, at KUNTU Repertory Theatre; a Giorgee Award for Best Director for The Ballad of Emmett Till at the Ensemble Theatre; a SUPERIOR Award for her direction and production of Gem of the Ocean, at Seminole State University. Elizabeth originated the roles in FLYIN' WEST by Pearl Cleage, NO…N, NO JEWS, & NO DOGS, THE DANCE ON WIDOW'S ROW by Samm Art Williams. She last appeared in FALL by France- Luce Benson at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and at New Federal Theatre in ZORA NEALE HURSTON, A Theatrical Biography, by Laurence Holder. She received an AUDELCO AWARD for Best Actress for her portrayal of Zora. Elizabeth received an AUDELCO Award for Best Featured Actress in WEDDING BAND for her portrayal of Fannie in 2022, and Best Ensemble Award for TELLING TALES OUT OF SCHOOL by Wesley Brown. Ms. Van Dyke is a member of EST, a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, a member of the League of Professional Women in Theatre, the National Theatre Conference, the Actors' Center, the Dramatist Guild and SDC.

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    Host & Producer: Rachel Lin

    Sound Engineer & Designer: Rebecca Seidel

    Artwork by: Harrison Densmore

    Music By: Wendy Marcini

    Show transcription: Francesca Fernandez Mckenzie

    Brought to you by: Ensemble Studio Theatre
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    50 mins
  • Multi-hyphenate Members: Florencia Lozano & Alfredo Narciso, in Conversation

    Multi-hyphenate Members: Florencia Lozano & Alfredo Narciso, in Conversation
    Jul 23 2025

    Florencia Lozano and Alfredo Narciso have known each other for a looong time. In fact, they've played husband and wife on more than one occasion! So, we figured we'd get them in a room together to kick off SEASON 2 of our lil' ol' pod: EST Re:Members! Over tea, Florencia & Alfredo chat with our host, Rachel Lin, about: the role that theater companies like EST and LAByrinth have played in their lives and careers; what it was like to start out in day time TV; and how these two have stayed such good friends over the years. Tune in to hear our guests spill the tea (pun intended) on how exactly they've become fixtures on stages across New York City and beyond.

    Florencia Lozano is an actor, writer and performance artist. Theatre includes: ALL OF ME ( NEW GROUP), BROOKLYN LAUNDRY (MTC), WET BRAIN and PLACEBO(PLAYWRIGHTS' HORIZONS), FUN WITH PANIC ATTACKS (INTAR, she also wrote it) SHUTTLE, SPINDLE, NEEDLE (CLUBBED THUMB), RINSE, REPEAT, DEVIL OF CHOICE (LABYRINTH) AND SHE WOULD STAND LIKE THIS (MOVEMENT THEATRE CO),WINNERS (EST),RED DOG HOWLS (NYTW)"Lady Macduff" (SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK), PRIVILEGE (SECOND STAGE), LAST EASTER (MCC), WHERE'S MY MONEY? (MTC/LAB), DIRTY STORY (LAB). TV includes: Bull, The Baker and the Beauty, Gossip Girl, Blue Bloods, Ugly Betty, Law and Order:SVU&CI, The Mysteries of Laura, Madame Secretary, Kevin Can Wait, The Blacklist and Enemy Within. KEEP BREATHING, NARCOS (NETFLIX) and One Life to Live. Films include: LIFE AFTER YOU (which she also co-wrote and produced:available on all streaming platforms), DESTROY ALL GIRLS, FARAWAY EYES, PERFECT STRANGER, and VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE. Florencia is a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company, and of LAB's literary team as well as a company member at The Ensemble Studio Theatre. Her play: underneathmybed was produced at the Rattlestick Playwrights' Theatre and won HOLA's (Hispanic Organization of Latino Actors) Best New Play Award in 2010. MFA, NYU. BA, Brown Her parents are immigrants from Argentina.

    Alfredo Narciso is an NYC-based actor, director and producer via Wisconsin (born in Milwaukee, raised in Eau Claire). He is of Brazilian and Filipino heritage - a Brazilipino, if you will. His incipient ventures took him through the Flea Theater as a member of Jim Simpson's Bat Theater Company. From there, he has worked at an eclectic array of theaters from Ma-Yi, NAATCO & Intar to regional spots like Yale Rep, A.R.T., The Shakespeare Theater of DC and NYC Broadway and Off-Broadway venues, such as: The Roundabout, TFANA, The Public, New York Theater Workshop & Playwrights Horizons. He can also be seen in front of the camera in films & TV shows, such as: Our Son, Demolition, The Dark Tower, "Star Trek: Discovery", "Elsbeth", "Manifest" & "The Summer I Turned Pretty". He is a proud lifetime member of Ensemble Studio Theater, as well as, The Actor's Studio and LAByrinth Theater Company. www.alfredonarciso.com Host & Producer: Rachel Lin Sound Designer & Engineer: Rebecca Seidel Artwork: Harrison Densmore Music: Wendy Marcini Show transcription: Francesca Fernandez Mckenzie
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    54 mins
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