Rutgers student Camila Canó-Flaviá makes her professional debut in the title role
Chester Theatre Company (CTC) is proud to announce the casting for its 2016 season opener, the World Premiere of My Jane by Producing Artistic Director Daniel Elihu Kramer. My Jane, a contemporary exploration of Charlotte Brontë’s sweeping novel Jane Eyre, opens June 29th and plays through July 10, 2016, at Chester’s historic Town Hall, 15 Middlefield Road in Chester, MA. Camila Canó-Flaviá will be making her professional debut in the title role of Jane.
Camila is currently studying for her BFA in Acting at the Mason Gross School of the Arts in Rutgers University. As part of the Rutgers Theatre Company, she has performed the roles of Agnes in Strindberg’s A Dream Play and Callie in Don Nigro’s Scarecrow. Other credits include playing the character of Perdita in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale at the Wow Café Theater, as well as Salomé in Waterwell Drama Program’s production of Salomé of the Moon under the direction of My Jane director Knud Adams.
CTC Producing Artistic Director Daniel Elihu Kramer spoke of the belief he and director Knud Adams have in Canó-Flaviá. “Camila is a special actor, and we know audiences will come to discover what we see in her: a remarkable young artist with an exciting professional career ahead of her. In reading Jane Eyre, we can forget how young Jane is; Camila brings both youth and her remarkable talent to the role.”
Alex Hanna (Rochester) is a 2013 graduate of The Julliard School, where he won an Elizabeth Smith Prize for drama. A member of the original cast of the Pulitzer Prize winning Off-Broadway hit The Flick by Annie Baker, he appeared in the play at Playwrights Horizons in 2013 and again at the Barrow Street Theatre in 2015. Other roles include Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet at Hartford Stage, and Justin in Fox on the Fairway by Ken Ludwig at North Carolina’s Flat Rock Playhouse. Also a writer and director, Alex is known for the short films The Judgement (2012),Take It to Go (2013), and Rise Up, all in his native Canada.
Laura Ramadei (Narrator) s a founding member of New York’s Lesser America, Red Elevator Productions, and The Nola Project. A graduate of Denver School of the Arts and NYU Tisch, she appeared in Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a commercial workshop with Stephen King and John Mellencamp; Exit Carolyn, for which she received a New York Innovative Theater (NYIT) nomination, The Year of the Rooster (EST/Youngblood), Cloud Nine (Ambie Award Nomination); Love’s Labors Lost with The 2 Nola Project; and Too Little Too Late (HERE Arts – NYIT Nomination). Her film and television credits include roles on Orange is the New Black, Another Kind, Lizzie and Me, Gasoline, Night Crawlers, and Eagles Are Turning People Into Horses (BriTANick). She is also known for her work in new media, including Compulsive Love with Viralcom. Laura has performed and worked behind the scenes at The Public Theater, Dixon Place, the Pearl Theater, 59E59, HERE Arts Center, Theater for the New City, Theater 80, Ensemble Studio Theater, and LAByrinth, among others. She currently serves as the Director of Creative Development at the newly formed American Playwriting Foundation.
Claire Siebers’ (Mrs. Fairfax, Blanche Ingram, and others) numerous New York appearances include Interviewing Miss Davis and Anniversary at the Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon; Too Little Too Late with HERE Arts Center; and Time Is the Mercy of Eternity by Deb Margolin, with Lisa Kron. She was seen in Schmoozy Togetherness, directed by Johanna McKeon, When You’re Here, directed by Portia Krieger, and After Robert Hutchens, directed by Sheryl Kaller, at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Hedda Gabler at The Juilliard School; and as Cordelia in Gabrielle Reisman’s Storm, Still, the inaugural production of the Brooklyn Yard collective. Film credits include Other People (2012), The Back Room (2007), and What’s Your Emergency (2015). Claire is a member of Lesser America, and a frequent collaborator with The Representatives in New York, appearing in their production of Bazarov. She studied at Yale University and The Juilliard School.
Directing My Jane will be Knud Adams, whose production of Annie Baker’s Body Awareness was staged at CTC in 2013 to high praise. A director of experimental and new plays, Knud is rapidly becoming one of the most sought-after directors in New York’s downtown theater scene. He has directed and/or developed visually arresting plays with Ars Nova, Brooklyn College, The Bushwick Starr, Chester Theatre Company, Clubbed Thumb, Cloud City, Columbia University, dell’Arte Opera, Dixon Place, JACK, Juilliard, La MaMa, Manhattan School of Music, The New Ohio, New York Theatre Workshop, The Pearl, Playwrights Horizons, Playwrights Realm, PRELUDE, Rutgers University, Soho Rep, terraNOVA Collective, and Waterwell. Along the way, Knud has worked with some of the nation’s foremost theatre artists, including André Gregory, Elizabeth LeCompte, Richard Foreman, Sam Gold, and Sarah Benson. He was a Drama League Directing Fellow, a member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and a Playwrights Horizons Directing Resident.
Tom Shread returns to CTC as resident sound designer. A musician, sound designer and dramaturg, Tom’s previous work for CTC includes The Dishwashers, Grace, The Bully Pulpit, Animals Out of Paper, Pride@Prejudice, The Swan, and The Nibroc Trilogy. Tom has an MA in dramaturgy, has played music throughout Europe and East Africa, and in the early 1980s had a residency at Happy Land, Khartoum’s only nightclub. Rounding out the creative team for My Jane will be costumer Asta Bennie Hostetter, recipient of a 2016 Obie Award for her collaboration on Annie Baker’s John, and set and lighting designer Oona Curley.
Performance times for My Jane are 8:00 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; and 2:00 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. There will be an audience Talkback following the Thursday matinees and Saturday evening performances, a Panel Discussion featuring outside experts after the first Sunday matinee, and Cast Conversations following Friday matinees.
