July 11 – August 2
Run Time: 90 minutes
Adult language and situations
“Modesty hasn’t done much for women, historically speaking.”
Nichols & May were one of the greatest comedy duos of all time, but when they parted ways, Mike Nichols soared while Elaine May struggled. The system wasn’t built for “difficult” women, but it endlessly rewarded “charming” men. Decades later, when Mike approaches Elaine with a new opportunity, she must wrestle with what matters more: succeeding on her own, or reuniting with the partner who knows her true worth. Set in the complex interaction of creativity, competition, and gender disparity, this split-second-timed, laugh-out-loud play by USA Today bestselling author and 2024-2025 Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellow Beth Kander examines the power of lifelong friendship, thorns and all.
SPONSORED BY BETH K. BATDORF & JOHN S. BRESLAND
Getting to the Play
2026 – Interview with Playwright Beth Kander
Meet Beth Kander Beth Kander is a USA Today best-selling novelist and longtime dramatist. Described as a “genre-defying author and playwright” (Oxford American), her writing style blends warmth, wit, and solid punches to the gut. Her work often explores identity, transitional moments in life or society, and how worlds old and new connect—or collide. Beth … Continued
Team
Playwright + Director
Beth Kander
Playwright
Beth Kander is a USA Today best-selling novelist and longtime dramatist. Described as a “genre-defying author and playwright” (Oxford American), her writing style blends warmth, wit, and solid punches to the gut. Her work often explores identity, transitional moments in life or society, and how worlds old and new connect—or collide.
Beth was a Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellow (2024-2025). Playwriting awards include two wins at Ashland New Plays Festival, where she subsequently served six seasons as Host Playwright and will be returning to host in 2026; Charles M. Getchell New Play Award; two Henry Awards for Best New Play or Musical; three Eudora Welty Playwriting Awards. Her newest play, Best Line Wins, will premiere in the 2026 season at the Contemporary American Theater Festival. She is also a former Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Fellow. Beth’s debut novel, I Made it Out of Clay (Mira/ HarperCollins), hit shelves in December 2024 and was an immediate bestseller; she has also authored several books for younger readers, including the popular picture book Do Not Eat This Book! (Sleeping Bear Press, 2023) and the cult hit dystopian YA trilogy Original Syn (Owl House Books, 2018—an independent press that sadly shuttered in the wake of the pandemic). Beth’s work has appeared in Oprah Daily, Writer’s Digest, Slackjaw, Frazzled, American Theatre, and elsewhere.
Jessica Kubzansky ‡
Director
JESSICA KUBZANSKY (she/hers) is the Artistic Director of Boston Court Pasadena, a theatre primarily dedicated to risky, adventurous new works and significantly reenvisioned classics, and an award-winning director working nationally in theatres such as Arena Stage, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, The Cherry Lane, Portland Center Stage, ACT Seattle, Utah Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, and many others. Kubzansky directs inventive work across many genres, most recently: the world premiere of Weston Gaylord’s Octopus’s Garden, Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana (Boston Court), the world premiere of Sarah Mantell’s Everything That Never Happened (Baltimore Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival [pandemic-paused], Boston Court), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Florian Zeller’s The Father with Alfred Molina (Pasadena Playhouse), world premieres of Aditi Brennan Kapil’s Orange (South Coast Rep), her own immersive site-specific Measure STILL for Measure, Tira Palmquist’s The Body’s Midnight, Kit Steinkellner’s Ladies (Boston Court), plus the West Coast premiere of Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, A Medea in Los Angeles (Boston Court at the Getty Villa), Othello (A Noise Within), Aaron Posner’s Stupid Fucking Bird (ACT Theatre Seattle), Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths (Arena Stage), and many more. Most recent new play development work with: E.M. Lewis, Jeanne Sakata, Keiko Green, Julia Lederer, and more. Kubzansky has received many awards and honors, among them the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre.
Cast
Riley Shanahan*
Mike Nichols
LA Theater: Rev. Shannon in The Night of the Iguana at Boston Court (LA Times Best Play of 2025), Resident Artist at A Noise Within; Regional Theater: Utah Shakespeare Festival, Theater of War, PCPA, Book-It Repertory, Cafe Nordo, Seattle Shakespeare, Intiman, ArtsWest Playhouse, Washington Ensemble, Horse in Motion, Cape Rep; Film: Second Nature, 20 Pounds to Happiness; Music Videos: The National’s I Am Easy to Find, Bon Iver’s Day One; Short Films: Parallel Lines, Breakdown, Nice Guy, Heathens; TV: Series Regular in Doom Patrol; Titans, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Chicago PD.
Lori Vega*
Elaine May
Lori Vega (Best Line Wins – Elaine May): CATF 2022: Babel & Ushuaia Blue; NYC: Downstate (Playwrights Horizons), Trifles & Other Plays (Classic Stage Co,); The Scream Inside (Working Theater), One Night, P* SSY C* CK KNOW NOTHING, Pay No Attention to the Girl (Target Margin Theater); Regional: Dial M For Murder (The Guthrie); 10×10 New Play Festival (Barrington Stage); The Good John Proctor (Trinity Rep); The 39 Steps (Cape Playhouse); Nonsense and Beauty (Rep Theatre St. Louis); As You Like It (Idaho Shakespeare); A Midsummer Night’s Dream & As You Like It (Lake Tahoe Shakespeare). TV: Pretty Little Liars, And Just Like That, FBI, BULL, El Deafo. Education: LAMDA, Cornell University
Production Team
Michael B. Raiford †
Scenic Design
Regional: South Coast Repertory Theatre, City Theatre (Pittsburgh), Arizona Theatre Company, Playmakers Rep, The Alliance Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Ford’s Theatre, New Victory Theatre, The Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Antaeus Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Geva, Merrimack Rep, ZACH Theatre, Kansas City Rep, and New Shelter VG4 Theatre ( Mexico ). Also: Nevada Ballet, Ballet Austin, Oklahoma City Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Royal Winnipeg, Hong Kong Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Opera Boston, Central City Opera, Austin Lyric Opera. Director of Blast: The Music of Disney National tour of Japan. Visit: michaelraiford.myportfolio.com
Benjamin Gantose
Associate Scenic Design
Benjamin is thrilled to be making his CATF debut. He has designed lighting, sets, and projections for works spanning ballet and modern dance, scripted and devised theatre, musical theatre, opera, events and immersive installations. He is a Resident Designer at Cleveland Public Theatre, The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati, and Sacramento Ballet. Recent and Upcoming: Annie (Lighting) at Zach Theatre; Septime Weber’s The Great Gatsby (Assoc. Design) Cincinnati Ballet, Kansas City Ballet; Sweeney Todd (Assoc. Design) Idaho Shakespeare; Kris and Martha (Scenery) B Street Theatre.
Ann Closs Farley †
Costume Design
Los Angeles costume designer Ann Closs-Farley is a 35-year veteran of stage and screen. Credits include The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, Evening Without Monty Python at The Town Hall in New York, Toy Story: The Musical for Disney Cruise Line, What About Dick? for Netflix, A Christmas Karen for FilmRise, and The Bourne Stuntacular for Universal Studios. Her work also includes Finn: The Musical at the Kennedy Center, Twelfth Night at the Guthrie Theater, Eye of the Storm for Shanghai Disney, and Annapurna at the Acorn Theatre Off-Broadway starring Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman. NYC. www.annclossfarley.com
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew †
Lighting Design
CATF Debut. Broadway: Kimberly Akimbo, The Thanksgiving Play. Off-Broadway: The Connector (MCC), Wine in the Wilderness (CSC), Chinese Republicans (Roundabout), Richard II (Red Bull), Oratorio for Living Things (Signature), Manahatta (The Public), Regional: A Wrinkle in Time (Arena), Sally & Tom (Round House), Wizard of Oz (CTC), The Reservoir (DCPA, Alliance & Geffen), King Lear (STC), The Odyssey (A.R.T.). Other: Madame Butterfly (BLO), An American Soldier (PAC NYC), The March (Big Dance Theater), and David Byrne’s immersive Theater of the Mind (Goodman & DCPA). Awards: 2026 USA Fellow, Obie for sustained achievement in design, Henry Hewes Lighting Design Award, NEA/TCG. Jeanetteyew.com
Christian Frederickson
Sound Design
Christian Frederickson is a violist, composer, and sound designer specializing in performances with live music. At CATF: Side Effects May Include and Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather? Other theater: Trojan Women at BAM; The Thin Place at Playwright’s Horizons; American Moor at Tanglewood Music Center; 6 seasons of Humana Fest at Actors Theatre of Louisville. He was a founding member of Rachel’s, an instrumental band from Louisville, KY which released six albums on Touch and Go Records and toured widely in the US and Europe. Frederickson has been teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 2019.
Mona Kasra †
Projections Design
Mona Kasra is a new media artist and projection designer whose work explores the intersection of performance and emerging technologies. Her work has received four Helen Hayes Award nominations for Outstanding Media/Projections Design (2022, 2023, and 2025). Selected credits: Side Effects and Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather (CATF); The American Five (Ford’s Theatre); Andy Warhol in Iran, Unseen, The Till Trilogy (Mosaic Theater); This Much I Know (59E59, Theater J); We Swim, We Talk, We Go to War (Golden Thread SF). Kasra is Associate Professor of Digital Media Design at the University of Virginia and holds an MFA in Video Art and a PhD in Arts & Technology.
Lindsay Eberly *
Production Stage Manager
McCorkle Casting, Ltd.
Casting Director
McCorkle Casting Ltd. is honored to continue its longstanding relationship with CATF, helping bring together actors, playwrights, directors, and producers in service of powerful storytelling. For more than four decades, the company has cast productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in regional theatres, and for film and television, with a commitment to discovering talent and fostering creative collaboration. Credits include Broadway productions such as On the Town, Amazing Grace, End of the Rainbow, and A Few Good Men; Off-Broadway productions including Tribes, Our Town, and Driving Miss Daisy; hundreds of regional theatre productions nationwide; and more than 100 film and television projects for HBO, Showtime, CBS, Disney, Hallmark, BET, and Paramount. Pat McCorkle has received an Emmy nomination and an Artios Award for excellence in casting. www.mccorklecasting.com
Aaron D. Anderson ‡
Fight Director
Aaron is thrilled to be returning to CATF as it is his favorite place to pretend to beat people up. He is an internationally certified fight director who works at theaters around the globe. Favorite CATF shows include Happy Fall; The House of the Negro Insane; Thirst; Chester Bailey; Berta, Berta; The Wedding Gift; Byhalia, Mississippi; Not Medea; On Clover Road; H2O; Heartless; Modern Terrorism; Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah; Barcelona; Captors; Gideon’s Knot; In a Forest Dark and Deep; Ages of The Moon; Lidless; Fifty Words; History of Light; Farragut North; The Overwhelming; Stick Fly; and Pig Farm.
Shea-Mikal Green
Intimacy Director
Shea-Mikal Green is an actor, director, and creator who holds an MFA in Devised Performance from Pig Iron School / University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Credits include work at The Kennedy Center, Studio Theatre, RepStage, Adventure Theatre, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Quintessence Theatre, FringeArts, Cumberland Theatre, and Maryland Ensemble Theatre, where she is a company member. She has developed and performed original work in the U.S. and internationally through residencies such as Cow House Studios in Wexford, Ireland and The Iron Factory in Philadelphia. Green is the Director of the Contemporary Theater Studies program at Shepherd University. www.shea-mikalgreen.com
*Actors’ Equity Association
†United Scenic Artists
‡Stage Directors and Choreographers Society