July 11 – August 2
Run Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes, with a 10 minute intermission
Adult language and situations
“What good is shame in a shameless world?”
In this razor-sharp comedy set at the dawning of the 24-hour news cycle era, three ambitious journalism students bond over telling stories and their friendship spirals into a dangerous game of ambition, seduction, and betrayal. As they race to launch their careers, the line between reporting and manipulation dissolves, revealing the sociopathy embedded in the media—and in human desire itself. The newest work from award-winning playwright, reporter, and multimedia artist Aurin Squire, My Favorite Sociopath dissects how we justify deceit in the name of truth, and what happens when the story we’re writing is our own undoing.
SPONSORED BY DAVID & SUZANNE ALEXANDER
My Favorite Sociopath is being produced as a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere by the Contemporary American Theater Festival (Shepherdstown, WV), NJ Repertory Company in Long Branch, NJ and Firehouse Theatre in Richmond, VA. For more information, please visit nnpn.org.
Getting to the Play
2026 – Interview with Playwright Aurin Squire
Meet Aurin Squire Aurin Squire is an award-winning playwright, journalist, and multimedia artist. Squire wrote the book for the Tony-nominated Broadway musical A Wonderful World that opened at Studio 54 in October 2024. He won the Helen Merrill Prize for Emerging Playwrights as well as Seattle Public Theatre’s Emerald Prize for new American plays. He … Continued
Team
Playwright + Director
Aurin Squire
Playwright
Aurin Squire is an award-winning playwright, journalist, and multimedia artist. Squire wrote the book for the Tony-nominated Broadway musical “A Wonderful World” that opened at Studio 54 in October 2024. He won the Helen Merrill Prize for Emerging Playwrights as well as Seattle Public Theatre’s Emerald Prize for new American plays. He graduated from The Juilliard School after a two-year fellowship in the Lila Acheson American Playwriting Program. Squire has had fellowships at The Dramatists Guild of America, National Black Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. After graduating from Northwestern University, he worked as a reporter for publications like ESPN, The Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, The New Republic, Talking Points Memo, and Take Part. His dark comedy “To Whom It May Concern” won New York LGBT theatre awards for best play, best playwright, and best actor before being optioned and remounted off-Broadway to critical acclaim at the Arclight Theatre. As a documentary writer, Squire received a year-long commission to live in New Mexico, interviewing Jewish Latinos. He worked with an ensemble to create “A Light in My Soul,” a docudrama produced around New Mexico about Jewish families who fled from the Spanish Inquisition and settled in the American Southwest. Squire also wrote “Dreams of Freedom,” a multimedia installation video about Jewish immigrants in the 20th century, for the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. “Dreams” won 3 national museum awards and is in the permanent exhibit at NMAJH. His drama “Freefalling” was produced at Barrington Stage Company and won the Fiat Lux Award (“Let There Be Light”) from the Catholic Church’s Theatre Conference. Squire won the grand prize in the InspiraTO Theatre’s International Play Festival in Toronto for “Freefalling” and the play was published in Dramatists Play Service’s Outstanding Short Plays Volume 2. “Article 119-1,” his drama about a gay rights activist in Belarus, was produced in Florence, Italy, Norway, Vancouver, and Los Angeles in March 2014. Squire’s comedy “African Americana” received its world premiere at London’s Theatre 503. He has been a guest artist and lecturer at Northwestern University, Penn State U (Altoona), Gettysburg College, NYU, Molloy College, and New School University. His plays have been produced in London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, and other cities in the US and abroad. Squire has worked as a tv writer on “This is Us” and “BrainDead” and was the co-executive producer/writer on the legal drama “The Good Fight” and the supernatural thriller “Evil.” He lives in New York City.
Céline Rosenthal ‡
Director
CÉLINE ROSENTHAL is a Tony®-nominated producer and award-winning director whose theatre credits include Dial M for Murder (Pittsburgh Public Theater and Asolo Rep), Grand Horizons, The Lifespan of a Fact, Camelot, and The Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Asolo Rep); Jennifer Who Is Leaving (Urbanite); Queen of Wands (Union Theatre, London); Trayf (New Rep); Drowning in Cairo (National Queer Theatre); A Doll’s House, In the Next Room, When We Were Young and Unafraid, and Angel Street (Studio Theatre TDS). Upcoming: the world premiere of Jenny Stafford’s Ahoy-Hoy at Urbanite Theatre.
Céline served seven seasons as Associate Artistic Director at Asolo Rep and has developed new work with New Dramatists, MTF, South Carolina New Play Festival, Florida Rep PlayLab, Urbanite Modern Works, NYMF, and National Queer Theatre.
Film credits include directing the award-winning short Wildflower and the upcoming films Getting Off, Musings, and I Have to Get This Off My Chest. Script Supervisor credits include Operation Fast Link (starring Bill Camp and Roman Griffin Davis), Study for a Large Painting (starring Saul Rubinek), Her Longest Way Back Home, Notes from El Barrio, and All That Remains.
Cast
Kennedy Kanagawa*
Evan
Kennedy is thrilled to be making his CATF debut! Broadway: Into the Woods (Drama Desk & Clive Barnes nominations). Nat’l Tour: Into the Woods. Off-Broadway: White Rose (Theatre Row), Dinner With Georgette (NYTW), Saturday Night (Second Stage), The Good Swimmer (BAM). Other recent credits: The Gifted Prince (Theatre Calgary), Titanic (Ogunquit Playhouse), She Loves Me (Bucks County Playhouse), Waitress (Ogunquit Playhouse; TUTS; 5th Avenue Theatre), the Little Mermaid (the Muny), Frozen (the Muny; Olney Theatre Center), Tiananmen (Phoenix Theatre Company), Gold Mountain (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Last Ship to Proxima Centauri (Portland Stage).
Nick Saxton*
Miles
“Regional: Rope (Hartford Stage) Valor, Don Quixote, The Nature
Crown, Master Butchers Singing Club, Macbeth (Guthrie Theatre). Film:
End of the Rope. Education: MFA, Columbia University.”
Brooke Turner*
Gina
Credits include: Dial M for Murder (Asolo Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater); Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Inherit the Wind, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Tour, Our Town (Asolo Repertory Theatre); Richard III and The Magician’s Nephew Tours (Idaho Shakespeare Festival); Pride and Prejudice, Misery, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Great Lakes Theater), When We Were Young and Unafraid (Studio Theatre Tierra Del Sol). MFA Acting from The FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, BFA Acting from Baldwin Wallace University.
Production Team
Afsaneh Aayani
Scenic Design
Select Credits: English (Cincinnati Playhouse, Alliance Theatre, The Old Globe); English, A Christmas Carol (Alley Theatre); Birthday Candles (Chautauqua Theater); A Moment of Silence (Princeton University); Disgraced (American Stage); Romeo and Juliet (Two River Theater); Frozen (Theatre Under the Stars, La Mirada Theatre, Papermill Playhouse); Alabaster (Trinity Rep); Meow Wolf Houston; Lehman Trilogy, Black Superhero Magic Mama, Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson (Stages); Frida, Sunday in the Park With George (El Paso Opera); Big Swim (Houston Grand Opera); King Lear (Houston Shakespeare Festival); Little Shop (Moors School of Music). afsanehaayani.com
Shahrzad Mazaheri †
Costume Design
Shahrzad Mazaheri is a DC based costume designer. She is delighted to make her CATF debut. Recent works: Sleuth (Guthrie Theatre); In Clay and Safety Not Guaranteed (Signature Theatre); English (Alley Theatre, Goodman Theatre/Guthrie Theater co-production, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Wish You Were Here (South Coast Repertory); Someone Will Remember Us; POTUS; Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B (Trinity Rep). Upcoming: Heist (Cincinnati Playhouse in The Park), All The World’s a Stage (Signature Theatre). More at shahrzadmazaheri.com.
Anshuman Bhatia †
Lighting Design
Anshuman Bhatia is an award-winning lighting and scenic designer for opera, dance, and theater. His designs have been seen on stages across the U.S. and internationally, including Santa Fe Opera, The Guthrie, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The McKittrick Hotel, and Wolf Trap Opera, among many others. He is an Assistant Professor at the College of the Holy Cross, a proud member of United Scenic Artists 829, and holds an M.F.A. from NYU. www.bhatiadesign.com
Caroline Eng †
Sound Design
Caroline Eng is a New York based sound designer. CATF: The Overview Effect. Broadway: Yellow Face (Roundabout Theatre Company). Off-Broadway & Regional: The Unknown (Studio Seaview), Irishtown (Irish Rep), Belfast Girls (Irish Rep), Cymbeline (NAATCO), Cold War Choir Practice (Trinity Rep), Merry Me (NYTW), Coriolanus (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage), Hurricane Diane (People’s Light), Fences (Shakespeare & Company), What the Constitution Means to Me (WAM Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group), The Salonnieres (Greater Boston Stage Company), Little Women (Theatreworks Colorado Springs). carolineengdesign.com
Kelly Colburn †
Projections Design
Kelly Colburn is a multidisciplinary artist working in the DC Area (Piscataway/Nacotchtank lands). This is her first show at CATF. She is a Media/Projections faculty member at The University of Maryland College, and a two-time Helen Hayes recipient. She has been nominated for the Helen Hayes Awards, Philadelphia’s Barrymore Awards, Lucille Lortel Awards, and Henry Hewes Awards. BFA NYU Tisch, MFA University of Maryland.
Ingrid Pierson *
Stage Manager
NYC: NJ Rep, All The Devils Are Here, Ghost of John McCain, Disney Theatrical Group, 59E59 Theaters, Signature Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Origin Theater Company, Page 73, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, Jewish Plays Project. National Tour: Aladdin, Theatreworks USA. Regional: Riverside Theatre (FL), Theatre by the Sea, Gateway Playhouse, Sharon Playhouse, Gloucester Stage Company, Theater at Monmouth, Argyle Theatre, Luna Stage, Triad Stage, Mill Mountain Theater, Weathervane Repertory Theatre. Proud member of AEA.
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
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
Paul Adolphsen
Dramaturg
Paul Adolphsen is a dramaturg originally from Seattle, WA. He currently serves as the Director of Literary Development at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and has previously served on the artistic staff of Seattle Rep and Asolo Repertory Theatre. As a dramaturg, Paul has worked with Seattle Shakespeare Company, Ashland New Plays Festival, and the Colorado New Play Festival, among others. He is a past Fulbright Student Research Fellow (Cape Town, South Africa), and his writing about theatre has been published in Theatre Journal, on HowlRound.com, and by Penumbra Theatre Company. MFA, Dramaturgy: University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
*Actors’ Equity Association
†United Scenic Artists
‡Stage Directors and Choreographers Society