Bios
Estelle Parsons (Alexandra) is most widely known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Bonnie and Clyde and her 10 years as Mother Bev on the hit sitcom “Roseanne.” In the theater, she is known for her portrayal of the tyrannical eighth grade teacher in Roberto Athayde’s classic about totalitarian power, Miss Margarida’s Way, which she performed on Broadway, all over the United States and in London, Dublin, Turkey and Australia. She has appeared in plays by the great writers of our time, including Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Dario Fo, Arthur Miller, Samuel Beckett, Paul Zindel and Horton Foote. Estelle starred in August: Osage County by Tracy Letts on Broadway for a year and on the road for a year. Most recently Estelle was seen in Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire and the George & Ira Gershwin musical, Nice Work If You Can Get It with Matthew Broderick. In 2012, she was directed by Neil LaBute in Marco Calvani’s Things of This World. As a director, she created the New York Shakespeare Festival Players for Joseph Papp in the 1980s. For two seasons, they performed Shakespeare on Broadway for New York City school students and their families in an effort to develop a multicultural audience for New York. She also directed Al Pacino in Oscar Wilde’s Salome: the Reading on Broadway. Estelle Parsons is a member of The Actors Studio and was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2004.
Stephen Spinella (Chris) won two consecutive Tony and Drama Desk Awards for the original Broadway productions of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America plays, directed by George C. Wolfe; he was honored for playing the role of Prior Walter in both the first part (Millennium Approaches) and the second (Perestroika), which marked his Broadway debut. Stephen has since starred on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical Spring Awakening; revivals of A View from the Bridge, Electra and Our Town (with Paul Newman); and James Joyce’s The Dead (with Christopher Walken), for which he won a third Drama Desk Award, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award, and was again a Tony nominee. Off-Broadway Stephen originated his role and won an Obie in Love! Valour! Compassion! with Nathan Lane. He also appeared in A Question of Mercy; and alongside Meryl Streep and Natalie Portman in The Seagull. In 2011 he starred in Tony Kushner’s new play The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures and in 2012 he won a second Obie for An Iliad, a one-man retelling of Homer’s epic war poem created by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson. His feature credits include And the Band Played On; Virtuosity; Love! Valour! Compassion!; What the Deaf Man Heard; The Jackel; Great Expectations; Ravenous; Cradle Will Rock; Bubble Boy; Connie & Carla; And Then Came Love; Milk; Rubber; and Lincoln. Stephen has guest-starred on television series such as “Frasier,” “Heroes,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Alias.” He was a recurring character on “The Education of Max Bickford,” was seen in a guest arc on the Emmy Award-winning fifth season of “24,” and is currently a recurring character in USA Network’s “Royal Pains."
Eric Coble (Playwright) Off-Broadway, Eric’s play Bright Ideas was produced by Manhattan Class Company directed by John Rando. Other plays include A Girl’s Guide To Coffee, Stranded On Earth, Southern Rapture and My Barking Dog, and have been performed in all 50 states as well as on five continents, including productions at Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, The Kennedy Center, Denver Center Theatre Company, Arena Stage, New York and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, Alliance Theatre, Cleveland Play House, South Coast Repertory, Asolo Repertory, Indiana Repertory, Coterie Theatre and The Contemporary American Theatre Festival. Awards include an Emmy nomination, the AT&T Onstage Award, National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award, the AATE Distinguished Play Award for Best Adaptation, the Chorpenning Playwright Award for Body of Work and the Cleveland Arts Prize and four Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grants.