CHAD DEVERMAN (Male Actor) has been an actor and educator for over ten years. He has preformed with such Bay Area theatre companies as ACT, San Jose Repertory, TheatreWorks, CalShakes, San Francisco Playhouse, Aurora Theatre, Capital Stage Company, Cutting Ball Theatre, and B Street Theatre. Film and television credits include the independent films Men of the Tree, The Delivery Man, and Curves, as well a recurring role on the NBC show Trauma. As an educator, Deverman has worked with acting students through the Eugene O’Neill Foundation for several years and directed at numerous youth theatre companies around the Bay. He holds a BFA in Theatre from NYU and a Certificate of Study from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England.
GWEN LOEB (Female Actor) is delighted to be joining the world premiere of Abominable. Gwen’s recent productions include: The Nurse and Lady Montague in Romeo and Julietwith San Francisco Shakespeare Company; Mrs. Bennett in Pride & Prejudice atLivermore Shakespeare; Pauline in A Bright New Boise and Babette in The Arsonists at Aurora Theatre Company; Columbina in Truffaldino Says No at Shotgun Players; a principal and soloist in the new musical Can You Hear Me Babyat the Unicorn Theatre with Jayne Atkinson-Gill; a principal and soloist in the historic Bracebridge dinner in Yosemite; a reading of East Of Eden with American Conservatory Theatre; and Flo in the movie The Boat Builder with Christopher Lloyd. Gwen has been a Company Member with PlayGround for over 15 years and she is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
LISA MORSE (Beverly Onion) Local Theatre: Marin Theatre Co., Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Just Theatre, PlayGround, Playwrights Foundation. Regional Theatre: Missouri Rep, The Kennedy Center, Old Castle Theatre Co, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, The Depot Theatre. Off Broadway: Lincoln Center, CSC, and P.S. 122. Favorite roles include Mom in Down a Little Dirt Road, Miss Finknagle in the film adaptation of Miss Finknagle Succumbs to Chaos, Lisa in Hella Love Oakland, Nora in A Doll’s House, Hellena in The Rover, and Lala in The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Morse has studied with Uta Hagen, Gene Saks, David Shiner, and Joseph Chaikin. She also writes her own material, and has performed her one-woman shows, The Clown Bride and Five Times, in NYC and in Boston.
AMY RESNICK (Luck) New York: Lincoln Center, Synchronicity Place, HERE, Cherry Lane, Barrow Theatre, Westbeth Theatre, Women’s Project. Regional: Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Rep, Alliance Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Wilma Theatre, Magic Theatre, Arena Stage, B Street Theatre, Aurora Theatre, Theatreworks, Arizona Theatre, Capital Stage, San Jose Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, South Coast Rep World Premieres by Aaron Sorkin, Steven Belber, Claire Chafee ,Leigh Fondakowski, Carlos LaCamara, Moises Kaufman, Steve Yockey, Wendy Mac Cleoud, Allison Moore, and Jon Jory, and Katie May. TV: Law & Order, Picket Fences, St. Elsewhere, Simon & Simon, Paper Dolls (recurring), Paper Chase (recurring), Back to the Streets of San Francisco, Midnight Caller. Film: The Sure Thing, Haiku Tunnel, Love & Taxes, The Californians.
NICAN JAMES ROBINSON (Fate) is a dance and theater enthusiast. He most recently was an ensemble member in Artist Repertory Theater’s wildly successful Broadway Scale Musical, Cuba Libre, where he also assisted esteemed choreographer, Maija Garcia (Chi-Raq, FELA!) in teaching the entire cast Rueda de Casino (Cuban Salsa). He recently relocated from New York to his hometown, Oakland, CA, where he appeared in several Monday Night Playgrounds with SF Playground. He is currently rehearsing for several plays that premiere in Summer 2016. Robinson is a proud UC Berkeley Golden Bear.
STEVEN WESTDAHL (The Abominable Snowman) Local: Second Wind Productions, Un-Scripted Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco Theatre Pub, Naked Empire Bouffon Company, The Neo-Futurists, San Francisco Olympians Festival, San Francisco Fringe Festival, EXIT Theatre. Regional: 7Stages, PushPush, Dad’s Garage, Alliance, Second City Theatrics, Theatre Emory, Sensurround Stagings, Jack In The Black Box, Out Of Hand, Twinhead, Collective Works. International: Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Scotland), Bali National Arts Festival (Indonesia), Theatre Koleso (Russia), Over Het Ij Festival (Netherlands). Favorite roles include The Creature in Frankenstein In Love, Ravana in Situ Banda, and Napoleon in Animal Farm. Westdahl is an alumni of the PlayGround playwrighting pool and his short play, Frankenstein’s Grandmother, was published and performed as part of the Best Of PlayGround Festival, 2015. You can hear him talk like a profession wrestler as the voice of the player-customized character in 2K Games’ WWE 2K16. Steven is a fifth-generation Californian and currently lives in Oakland with his pit bull, Zoe, and his partner, playwright Megan Cohen.
KATIE MAY (Playwright) plays include Abominable (The Lark NYC), Manic Pixie Dream Girl (fringeNYC, A.C.T. Costume Shop, San Francisco) Black Sheep Gospel (Great Plains Theater Conference), A History of Freaks (Finalist David Mark Cohen Award in Playwriting), and Secrets of Gardenias (Piper Center New Play Development Fellowship). Her short play Rapunzel’s Etymology of Zero (Best of Playground Festival, 2011) was recently released as an animated short film and is currently screening in festivals. May is the recipient of fellowships from the Virginia Piper Writing Center and the National University of Singapore, a grant from the Women in Film Foundation, and an E-merging Writers Award from San Francisco Playground. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Arizona State University.
CHOLE BRONZAN (Director) is Artistic Director of Symmetry Theatre Company, where she has staged Carnival Round the Central Figure, The Language Archive (KQED Top 10 Bay Area Theatre Productions of 2013) and the Bay Area premiere of Lauren Gunderson's Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatalet Defends Her Life Tonight (BATCC Nomination: Best Director.) Other local directing credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, Much Ado About Nothing and The Heiress. NYC credits include The Lover at Flea Theater (Broadway World nomination: Best Director.) AfterAbominable, her upcoming directing projects include As You Like It at Petaluma Shakes and The Birds with Symmetry. Chloe is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association.
JIM KLEINMANN (Dramaturg/Co-Producer) co-founded PlayGround in 1994 and has served as Artistic Director since 1996. For PlayGround, he has provided artistic and administrative leadership for the past twenty seasons, developing PlayGround’s unique array of new playwright and new play incubator programs, including Monday Night PlayGround, the Best of PlayGround Festival, the full-length play Commissioning Initiative, the New Play Production Fund, and most recently the PlayGround Film Festival. During his tenure, he has directed more than 150 short plays by some of the Bay Area’s best new playwrights, including May, Lauren Yee, Geetha Reddy, Aaron Loeb, Trevor Allen, and Garret Jon Groenveld, among others, and has commissioned and developed over 61 full-length plays by these writers. Kleinmann is a veteran arts administrator with more than twenty years of experience, including stints leading Traveling Jewish Theatre, Smuin Ballet and Berkeley Symphony. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.