This panel will open a discussion about alumni performing artists’ journeys in their artistic paths, post-graduation, through the pandemic, through the strikes and now. After some initial panel presentation, we will break into smaller groups to discuss the challenges people have been facing and how we can help each other. Please join us at Pearl Studios, 500 8th Avenue, Studio 412, on Monday, September 23 at 6pm. Snacks will be served. This event is open to Oberlin alumni only.
PANELISTS:
Hannah Cabell '99
Hannah Cabell is an actor and filmmaker based in New York. TV credits include "Evil", "The Black List", "Blue Bloods", "The Good Fight", "Madam Secretary", "Mr. Robot", and "The Leftovers", and she currently plays Judge Renee Gittens on "Law & Order". Her film work includes Thine Ears Shall Bleed, The Surrogate, Luce, and Lost Nation (writer/director; Best NH Short, 2023 New Hampshire Film Festival). She has been nominated for Lortel and Drama Desk awards for her stage performances and created the character of ‘Suze’ in Jackie Sibblies Drury’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fairview. With a career mainly focused on new plays, she has premiered work by Sarah Ruhl, Will Eno, Jaclyn Backhaus, David Adjmi, Jen Silverman, and Rinne Groff, among others. Most recently, she appeared in The Welkin at the Atlantic Theater. She received her MFA from the Tisch Graduate Acting Program, NYU.
Nancy Giles '81
Nancy Giles is an Emmy Award winning contributor to “CBS News Sunday Morning,” and tries to be witty on various political panels on MSNBC. She’s acted in films, on TV (part of the ensemble cast of “China Beach” and the sitcom “Delta”), and most recently was Off-Broadway in The New Group’s “Good For Otto” by David Rabe. Giles is a Theatre World Award winner, has written and performed solo shows, and is working on a collection of essays and true stories. You’ve heard her voice on numerous commercials and as cartoon characters on The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. She’s a longtime volunteer with NYC’s 52nd Street Project, working with kids from the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in visual and performing arts workshops, classes, and performances. Her podcast “The Giles Files” is available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Rebecca Hargrove '12
Rebecca L. Hargrove most recently starred in NYGASP’s Trial by Jury as Angelina and The Mikado as Yum-Yum. She is a 2x ‘Best Opera Album’ Grammy Award Winner for The Metropolitan Opera’s Porgy & Bess (Gershwin) and Fire Shut up in My Bones (Blanchard). Previous productions include Our Town (Baltimore Center Stage), B.R.O.K.E.N Code B.I.R.D Switching (Berkshire Theater Group), In the Parlour (National Black Theater), Evita and Cabin in the Sky (City Center Encores!), and The Garden of the Finzi-Contini (New York City Opera). In concert, Rebecca has performed at Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center, David Geffen Hall, and 54 Below. Along with her creative partner, Kedren Spencer, Rebecca is the co-creator and founder of an independent film production company KSRH Productions LLC. Their first short film, Last Call, made its world premiere at The New Faces New Voices Festival. Follow her updates at www.RebeccaLHargrove.com and on IG/FB @RebeccaLHargrove.
Shilpa Mankikar '98
Shilpa Mankikar is an American filmmaker from New York & New Jersey of Indian descent. Shilpa's work combines a commercial sensibility with provocative content. She writes about rebellious youth, women, 2nd generation immigrants, progressive issues, and epic historical subjects. She is a graduate of the prestigious MFA Film Program at Columbia in New York, and Oberlin College. Shilpa currently makes music videos, branded content, feature films, and documentaries. She has been featured in The New York Times, Times of India, and NBC.
She was a Director at the ABC-Disney Talent Showcase. Her family comedy Diwal'Oween has won 13 international awards including Best Family Series, Best Actor, and an Audience Award at international festivals from Bali to Baltimore. She directed Nora Awkwafina Lum's show “Tawk” with Lilly Superwoman Singh.
Rich Orloff '73
Rich Orloff writes a lot! Some highlights: Author of 20 full-length plays (mostly comedies, mostly award-winning) and 80 short plays, which have had over 2000 productions on six continents – and a staged reading on Antarctica. Four years ago he began writing musicals and poems. His musical comedy Esther in the Spotlight has been produced in New York, Toronto, Tel Aviv and Miami, and his musical comedy Let's Misbehave (with songs by Cole Porter) had a reading last winter at the Lamb’s Club in NYC. Rich’s spiritually infused poems have been published in numerous magazines and presented at churches, synagogues, and other gatherings. He sends out a poem each week, and they’re read by over 2000 rabbis, ministers, and friends. Rich has performed his autobiographical monologue, It's a Beautiful Wound, at theaters and psychedelic conferences around the country and recently in Portugal. His poems and plays can be found at richorloff.com.
Zoe Senese-Grossberg '22
Zoe (she/her) is a New York based director, writer, dramaturg, and teaching artist. Recent directing credits include: if i live until i be a man, BOY MY GREATNESS, The Seagull, and RUR with the Firebird Players, Facelift at Gallery Players, and speaking strictly for me at Astoria Food Pantry Productions. She has been Firebird’s Literary Director since 2017. Zoe has worked as a stage manager, dramaturg, production assistant, and assistant stage manager at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Powerhouse Theater, Four Walls Theater, and the Workshop Theater. Her playwriting has received recognition from organizations such as the Eugene O’Neill Center, Penguin Random House, and YoungArts. UPCOMING: if i live until i be man at the SpaceUK as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and BOY MY GREATNESS on tour this fall. More at zoesenesegrossberg.com.
MODERATORS:
Elana Gartner '98
Internationally produced and recognized playwright Elana Gartner has been produced in New York, Ohio, Georgia, Tennessee, and New Zealand. She has had virtual readings through theaters in Ohio, Colorado and Washington DC. Elana’s work has been a semi-finalist for the 2021 Eugene O’Neill Playwriting Conference. She participated in the Great Plains Theatre Conference and the 2021 Kennedy Center Playwriting Initiative. Elana is the founding member of EMG Playwriting Workshop, and holds memberships with the Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll!, Manhattan Oracles, the League of Professional Theatre Women and the International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP), where she was a board member for five years. Elana was the co-founder of the ICWP 50/50 Applause Awards, recognizing those theaters demonstrating gender parity. She has had three monologues from her work published in anthologies. During the pandemic, Elana founded Four Walls Theater which produced socially responsible theatre virtually. Her next play is coming up in October, 2024 in NYC. Elana has an MFA from Spalding University. www.elanagartner.com
Mitch Weiss '74
Mitch Weiss on Broadway: A Chorus Line, The Grapes of Wrath, Golden Child, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Beauty and the Beast. Off-Broadway: Disenchanted!, Starmites, The Lady in Question. Senior management: NY Shakespeare Festival, Disney Theatricals Int’l, Big Apple Circus, Barrington Stage, Carnegie Hall. Personal management: Village People and Greg Louganis. He is co-author of The Business of Broadway (Allworth Press NYC) and is currently the Producing Artistic Director of The Farm (We Grow Theater!) –MWEntGroup.com and WeGrowTheater.com.
