THEATERLAB PRESENTS
a staged reading of
Nora’s Children
by Amy Staats
directed by Jessi D. Hill
Written by Amy Staats and directed by Jessi Hill, NORA’S CHILDREN is a comedy about Nora’s adult children 30 years after she abandons them in “A Doll’s House.” What happens when you build your life around a sworn enemy and then you finally meet them face to face and realize, “Oh my god. I love you.”?
Cast : Mary Bacon* (Nora), Claire Siebers* (Emme), Brian McManamon* (Ivar), Imran W. Sheikh* (Bobby), Tina Stafford* (Annie M), Brianna Martinez (Lilly/Greta), and Nico Grelli* (Tim/Petter).
Stage Directions: Eli Sebastian Wassertzug
Dramaturg : Sarah Lunnie
Amy Staats is an inaugural (2025) cohort member of Theaterlab’s Backstitch residency program. This project is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) through the Support for Artists Grant.
*Actor appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association
PERFORMANCES
Monday, November 17th @ 7:00pm
Run Time : 1 hour 50 min (including a 10 min intermission)
For any questions email Ticketing@TheaterlabNYC.com
MEET THE ARTISTS
AMY STAATS (Playwright)
Amy is an actor, writer, director, producer, a 2025-26 WP Playwrighting Fellow, and a 2017-18 Tow Playwright in Residence through the Atlantic Theater Company. The world premiere of Amy’s play EDDIE AND DAVE, had an extended run off Broadway at the Atlantic Theater and co-starred Amy in the role of “Eddie Van Halen.” Other plays include BEAUTIFUL CURTAINS FOR SALE (WP Pipeline Festival 2026), BAT KITTY (Momentum Festival), I HOPE SHE’LL BE OKAY (New Works NOW, Northern Stage), and HANDS (Naked Angel’s 1st Mondays). Her one act play, THROWS OF LOVE, was the winner of the 2015 Samuel French Short Play Festival. Her Russian spy/gymnastics sports dramedy feature film DEFECTED is currently in development with Olivia Wingate (MO Studios) and Wren Arthur (Olive Productions). As an actor, Amy performed the lead in the Broadway production of THE THANKGIVING PLAY (u/s three performances). Other work includes roles in TENT REVIVAL (McCarter Theater) and SWEAT (The Guthrie). Other performances of note include her role of Brenda in MILES FOR MARY (created by the Mad Ones, directed by Lila Neugebauer, which enjoyed extended runs at Bushwick Starr and Playwrights Horizons), and M.J. Fray in THE LAST CLASS, A JAZZERSIZE PLAY (TheaterLab, SCT, The Klunch, and more). She is a resident artist at Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor and SPACE on Ryder farm, a semi-finalist at Sundance Theater Lab and a semi-finalist at The O’Neill Playwrights Festival. TV/Film work includes roles on FBI Most Wanted, Bull (recurring) and Late Night with Stephen Colbert. https://www.amystaats.com/
JESSI D. HILL (Director)
JESSI D. HILL is a director based in New York City. Latest NYC credits include Off-Broadway productions of Crystal Skillman’s OPEN (NY Times Critic’s Pick), Robert Montano’s SMALL (2024 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominations), Matthew Freeman’s THE ASK (2025 Drama Desk Award Nomination), Chisa Hutchinson’s SURELY GOODNESS AND MERCY, and Larissa FastHorse’s VANISHING POINT. NYC credits include new work at New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater/Joe’s Pub, Primary Stages, Labyrinth, Women’s Project, 59E59, P73, Clubbed Thumb, La Mama, Rattlestick, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Playwrights Realm, New Georges and others. Regional Credits: The Old Globe, George St. Playhouse, A.R.T, People’s Light, Diversionary, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, TheatreSquared, Orlando Shakes and others. Her work has been seen internationally in Edinburgh, London, New Zealand, Berlin and Hamburg, Brussels, Ukraine and Rome. MFA: Yale. SDC. jessidhill.com
MARY BACON* (Nora)
Drama Desk winner for Patti in The Public’s Coal Country, as Susan in Nothing Gold Can Stay with Partial Comfort, and her NYC theatre career. Recent NY, Beline in The Imaginary Invalid with Moliere in the Park, this fall and last spring. Broadway: Tom Stoppard’s Rock N Roll and Arcadia. Select Off-Broadway: reprisal of Coal Country at the Public and Audible; Primary Stages: Harrison, TX with Hallie Foote and Jayne Houdyshell, Roads to Home with Hallie Foote and Harriet Harris, Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist, Kate Hammill’s Little Women, and Kitty in Lucinda Coxon’s Happy Now?; Giant at The Public, Drama Desk, and Lortel nominated Women Without Men at The Mint and Alma in Eccentricities of a Nightingale at TACT. Regional includes Bay Street Theatre, the Guthrie, Hartford Stage, Dorset Theatre Festival, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown, Westport Playhouse, The McCarter, Yale Rep, Seattle Rep, The Long Wharf, Old Globe, Denver Center, and others. TV/Film: Lost Girls, Heirloom, Bluebloods, The Blacklist, FBI Most Wanted, The Mist, Boardwalk Empire, Mildred Pierce, Elementary, Madame Secretary, The Good Wife, all Law and Orders, and GASBAG webseries, coming back for Season 3. Carnegie Mellon BFA, Actors Center member, co-founder of waw.
CLAIRE SIEBERS* (Emme)
Claire Siebers: As an actor, Claire has appeared in Mary Gets Hers (Playwrights Realm/MCC, dir. Josiah Davis) New Golden Age (Primary Stages, dir. Jade King Carroll) Georgia Mertching is Dead (EST, dir. Giovanna Sardelli), Events (The Hearth, dir. Sarah Blush), Agnes (Lesser America, dir. Jenna Worsham), NYLON (TheaterLab, dir. Knud Adams), The Workshop (softFocus, dir. Knud Adams), LA Party (UTR, Fusebox, dir. Phil Soltanoff) and other productions/new play development with Actors Theater of Louisville, Williamstown, Clubbed Thumb, New Group, LAByrinth, The Whitney Museum. As a writer/director, her plays Chinese Food Delivery Shoe and Something About Burning were selected as finalists for the Leah Ryan Fund and her screenplay Drinking Games was a finalist for the Almanack Screenwriters October Colony Program. Associate Producer Lesser America 2014-2016. Founding Member of Veronica Writers’ Group. New Georges Affiliated Artist. Education: Yale, Juilliard. clairesiebers.com
BRIAN MCMANAMON* (Ivar)
Brian is an actor, acting teacher and acting coach in NYC. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayal of the shape-shifting DC Comics villain Clayface on the FOX television show Gotham. On stage, Brian has appeared in dozens of world-premiere productions in New York and around the country including Jake Jeppson’s The Clearing, Bodega Bay, The Boat in the Tiger Suit, Chisa Hutchinson’s Alondra Was Here, Imagining the Imaginary Invalid at Mabou Mines and These Paper Bullets! at Yale Rep featuring new songs by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. Internationally, he performed in the world premiere of Rolin Jones’s The Jammer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, where the production received the festival’s top honor, the Fringe First Award. Film credits: The Subject (opposite Jason Biggs), The Path, Seeking: Jack Tripper, I am a Big Ball of Sadness… and the upcoming short film he also produced, Bad Dad. TV: Gotham, FBI: Most Wanted, American Horror Story, Succession, and Gossip Girl. BFA: Boston University. MFA: Yale School of Drama.
IMRAN SHEIKH* (Bobby)
Imran Sheikh is an actor based in NYC. Theatre: Off-Broadway: 44 Lights (44 Lights), American Dreams (Working Theatre), Confidence and the Speech (Charlotte’s). Regional and NYC: Disgraced (Milwaukee Rep, Florida Rep), The Invisible Hand (ACT/ Artists Rep), American Dreams (Cleveland Public Theatre), I Like to Be Here (New Ohio), The Myth Project (Noor Theatre), Carousel of Progress (Queens Theatre), Brahman/i (Crowded Fire), Disconnect (San Jose Rep), The Girl with Her Hands in the Sand & Radio Mara Mara (FringeNYC), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New York Shakespeare Exchange), Why We Left Brooklyn (Blue Coyote). Television: Guy Code (MTV, Comedy Central), Blue Bloods (CBS), Big Dogs (Amazon). Film: R & J, Origin of Fantasy. www.imransheikh.info
TINA STAFFORD* (Annie M)
New York Off-Broadway: Follies, Ionescopade, Illyria, I Married Wyatt Earp, Liberty, Importance of Being Earnest, Richard III Tours: the“First” First National tour of Once the Musical, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Jolson the Musical. Regionally: Arena Stage, Olney Theatre, the Paper Mill, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Westport, Buck’s County, La Jolla and Cape Playhouses, Goodspeed Musicals, Syracuse
Stage, Barrington Stage Company, Asolo Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Kansas City Rep, Shakespeare Theatre
of New Jersey, The Utah, Alabama, and Texas Shakespeare Festivals, Geva Theatre Center, Denver Center, Hangar Theatre, CATF. Proud Union Member.
BRIANNA MARTINEZ (Lilly/Greta)
Brianna Martinez is a stage and screen actress based in NJ/NYC and absolutely thrilled to be a part of this special workshop! Brianna was recently seen as Ivy Watkins in John Proctor is the Villain during its 2024 pre-Broadway run at The Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA. She frequently works with other regional theater companies such as The Shakespeare Theater of NJ, Premiere Stages, The Growing Stage, etc. Select regional credits: As You Like It, A Man for All Seasons, Romeo & Juliet (STNJ), the world premiere productions of Her Beautiful Sound, Maddie & Eleanor (The Growing Stage). This past fall, she was seen as part of the “Back to College” campaign for Ikea x HGTV. Brianna holds a BFA in Theatre Performance with additional on camera training with the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. She is currently EMC and represented by Stewart Talent NY. www.briannamartinez.net. P.S. Her first professional reading was as an intern at Premiere Stages in 2018—a reading brilliantly directed by Jessi D. Hill. Thank you, Jessi, for the full circle moment!
NICO GRELLI (Tim/Petter)
Nico Grelli (they/them) Recent Acting Credits include: Betrayal at The Goodman, directed by Susan V. Booth, Asking for Trouble at Ensemble Studio Theatre, and a workshop presentation of LM Feldman’s hand foot hand, directed by Jessi D. Hill at Playwrights Realm. Nico won a New York Innovative Theatre Award in 2017 for Best Lead Actor, for J.Stephen Brantley’s The Jamb, directed by Obie Winner David Drake. They were nominated for an Equity Joseph Jefferson Award in 2015 for Outstanding Supporting Actor for The Rose Tattoo at Chicago’s Shattered Globe Theatre. Films include It Had To Be You (Samuel Goldwyn Films), and numerous shorts. Nico is also a theatre maker, filmmaker, screenwriter and performance artist whose work has been supported and developed by HowlRound microgrants, Arts In Education Roundtable grants, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Tank, Grange Hall Cultural Center, the So-Fi Festival, NY Madness, and more. Frequent guest director and teaching artist for The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, The One Minute Play Festival, The 52nd St Project, Epic Theatre Ensemble, Marymount Manhattan College, and NYU/Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. For more info, please visit www.nicgrelli.com.
COVID-19 policy: In guidance with the city and state COVID-19 policies, we will no longer be requiring masks, but strongly recommend them.