Author: Casabuena

Meet the talented and funny cast of Hamlette by Alison Williams. Directed by Brian Weiser come see what is rotten in the state of Denmark!

Imagine if you will that “Hamlet” was not “Hamlet” at all, but “Hamlette” – a girl! This play is a twisty-turny interpretation of the classic Shakespearian tale.

Still haven’t gotten tickets yet?  Don’t miss out- CLICK HERE to buy now!

The Ghost/Polonius

Paul Del Signore is super duper excited to be working with the Casabuena Team on his first stab at “Shakespeare” in Hamlette. He’d like to thank and congratulate the wonderful cast and crew. He’d like to, but then again, he’d like to star in Polonius, King of the High Seas, too!! And that ain’t happening either!!

Queen Gertrude/King Claudius

Faith Yesners has been active in theatre productions in the Philadelphia area for many years. This is her debut with Casabuena Cultural Productions!  Favorite rolls include Maudie (To Kill A Mockingbird), Florence (Odd Couple, Fem.version), Elizabeth Proctor (The Crucible), Esther (The Price) various roles (Les Miserables), Godspell, String of Pearls.  Faith has appeared in commercials and film, but her passion is the stage. She is also a singer-songwriter, with 2 solo CDs

Hamlette

Batya Reich is a junior at Cheltenham High School. Hamlette is Batya’s third show with Casabuena. She has previously worked with the company as in Puberty: The Game Show and Naggy the Witch in MmmBeth. Batya has also previously been in school shows, including Young Frankenstein (Frau Blucher) and Footloose (Vi Moore). Another of her experiences is Yes! And…’s Winter Sort of Thing (yearly original shows) which she has been a part of for the past eight years. When not acting, Batya is involved in AP courses, National Honor Society, Cheltenham’s Touring Ensemble, and Select choir.

Horatio

Colin Polisano, a freshman at Cheltenham High School, is beyond excited to be a part of the production Hamlette!  This is his first production working with the Casabuena Theatre Company as is honored to work with such talented and brilliant directors and cast members.  He has performed in Cedarbrook Middle School’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Adam Long), The Addams Family: The Musical, and Cheltenham High School’s Footloose!, musical theatre is a very important of facet of Colin’s life.  Aside from being on stage, Colin participates in his school’s all-male a cappella group, Sons of Pitch, enjoys reading, singing, and working as a camp counselor over the summer.

Laertes/Ophelia

Jared Taylor is an actor, writer, director, and musician, This is his fourth year as a Casabuena member. Previous shows Jared has been in include MmmBeth(MacDuff), Puberty: The Game Show(Tommy), and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged(Prop Boy). Jared also worked on the short film High Stakes, and last summer shot and directed a short film he wrote called Eleventeen. He is heavily involved in the Central High School Drama Society, and has written and directed two one acts there. Jared is very excited to be in this year’s show, and wants to thank everyone in the shows, especially Brian and Batya for being so helpful with Hamlette.

Bernardo

Ben Vlam is currently a senior attending Friends-Select School. He like long walks in the park, star gazing, and dank memes. In the past, he was homeless man #2 in RENT, Dracula in Dracula, and Mitch in A Street Car Named Desire. Ben would like to thank his cat Violet for being his rock. He guesses he would also like to thank his parents. Finally, he would like to thank Casabuena Cultural Productions for this wonderful opportunity. If Ben sounds like someone you want to talk to, dial 1800-thisisnotarealnumber. Enjoy the show(s).

Francisco

Steven Lepore is an aspiring actor who’s been with Casabuena Cultural Productions for many years, as a stagelight manager, stage manager, and actor. He has been in multiple plays before such as Talk radio and Puberty The Game Show. He also does some acting for the Multimedia Club at Saul High School, of which he is soon-to-be graduating from.

Meet the wonderful cast of Life Comes to The Old Maid by Le Wilhelm. Directed by Mariangela Saavedra, these two talented actresses will tug at your heart strings!

A reclusive old lady named Mave is visited by a woman who remembers things that she is too young to have experienced: hayrides, dances and the final farewell of a boyfriend on a river bank. Who is Fay and why has she come by for a visit?

Got your tickets yet? Don’t miss out- CLICK HERE to buy now!

Mave McGinnis

Marilyn Leah is a director/actor/teacher/coach from Philadelphia who has been in the theater and film community for over 40 years. At Allens Lane she was in TORCH SONG TRILOGY and directed FLAMING GUNS OF THE PURPLE SAGE. She has acted next to Helen Mirren in the film SHADOWBOXER along with Cuba Gooding, Jr. Some of her theater roles include: Bea in A View from the Bridge, Marjorie in Tale of the Allergists Wife, Kate in Broadway Bound. Her directing credits include: a Shayna Maidel, A Soldier’s Play, Jitney, Butterflies are Free, Born Yesterday and Mauritius.
In September, Marilyn will be teaching intro to acting here at Allens lane for actors and non actors. Marilyn has a big smile on her face and is happy to be here.

Fay

Lia Taylor just turned 11 and is finishing 5th grade at C. W. Henry School. A Mt. Airy native, Lia has been performing since she was 3 years old and took her first ballet class. She danced the role of an angel in The Nutcracker at age 6. Lia is a born actress and has studied drama at Allen’s Lane’s summer camp, Philadelphia Parks & Rec’s summer youth drama camp, and several classes and workshops at the Arden Theatre. Aside from a fashion spread in Working Mother magazine at age 5 and appearing in Casabuena’s short films of Shel Silverstein’s A to Z poems, MmmBeth was her first professional stage performance where she played Twit the Witch. She appeared in Casabuena’s award winning short film “Bros & Arrows” as well as appearing last year in “Puberty:The Game Show”. This is Lia’s 3rd year working with Casabuena & has enjoyed the experience.

Meet the hillarious cast of The Philadelphia by David Ives. Directed by Mariangela Saavedra

In this Play we meet Al and Marcus. Marcus is  a man in a restaurant who has fallen into “a Philadelphia,” a Twilight Zone-like state in which he cannot get anything he asks for. But Al has the answers about how to survive just a fate…or does he.

 Got your tickets? Don’t miss out- CLICK HERE to buy now!

Marcus

Thomas Taylor is pleased to be making his adult acting debut with Casabuena Cultural Productions! He wants to make clear that he finds his beloved adopted hometown to be much more Alice’s Restaurant than Through the Looking Glass. But seriously, cheesesteaks need to step aside for roast pork as our official sandwich. Thanks to Mariangela for the opportunity, and to Jared and Katherine for being so tolerant of the rookie.

Waitress

Katherine Cooper is very excited to perform as The Waitress in her first year with Casabuena. She is in tenth grade at Cheltenham High School. Previously, she has been in two musicals with her school, Footloose (Ethel McCormack) and Nine To Five (ensemble). Last summer, she was also in the Arden Theatre Company’s summer camp production of Les Miserables (Factory girl/ensemble). Outside of theatre, Katherine sings in the Pennsylvania Girlchoir, and in the Select Choir and Touring Ensemble at her school. She also enjoys reading, writing, and the internet. She would like to thank Autumn and Batya for introducing her, Mariangela for the opportunity, and Samantha for stepping in for her on night two.

AL

Jared Taylor is an actor, writer, director, and musician, This is his fourth year as a Casabuena member. Previous shows Jared has been in include MmmBeth(MacDuff), Puberty: The Game Show(Tommy), and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged(Prop Boy). Jared also worked on the short film High Stakes, and last summer shot and directed a short film he wrote called Eleventeen. He is heavily involved in the Central High School Drama Society, and has written and directed two one acts there. Jared is very excited to be in this year’s show, and wants to thank everyone in the shows, especially Brian and Batya for being so helpful with Hamlette

Waitress*
*Understudy, performing Saturday June 4th.

Samantha Simpson is a graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, MD, and just received her Masters Degree in Theatre from Villanova University in May 2015. Some of Samantha’s favorite roles onstage have been Sally in John van Druten’s The Voice of the Turtle, Corie in Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, and Ann in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. Samantha is a co-founder of the Villanova Shakespeare Initiative, which had its debut in August of 2014 at the Media Theatre with Twelfth Night, where she will be played Viola. Samantha is a resident of Mt. Airy, where she lives with a small menagerie. Samantha’s first productions with CCP were as Lady MmmBeth in MmmBeth, June of 2014, and as “The Assistant” in our short film High Stakes shot in July 2014. She is currently featured in our short film Eleventeen in production now, in the role of “Secretary to the CEO”. She is currently stepping in as the understudy for the role of The Waitress in The Philadelphia and will be performing that role on Saturday June 4th at 7:30pm at Allens Lane.

Meet the talented cast of Words Words Words by David Ives. Directed by Mariangela Saavedra

This play is about Kafka, Milton, and Swift, three intelligent chimpanzees who are put in a cage together under the experimenting eye of a never seen Dr. Rosenbaum, a scientist testing the hypothesis that three apes typing at random  for an infinite amount of time will almost surely produce Hamlet (a variation on the infinite monkey theorem). The show’s title is a reference to a line from Shakespeare’s play. The performance comprises the ape characters humorously confronting and conversing with each other in order to understand the purpose of the exercise put upon them.

Got your tickets? Don’t miss out- CLICK HERE to buy now!

Milton

Ben Vlam is currently a senior attending Friends-Select School. He like long walks in the park, star gazing, and dank memes. In the past, he was homeless man #2 in RENT, Dracula in Dracula, and Mitch in A Street Car Named Desire. Ben would like to thank his cat Violet for being his rock. He guesses he would also like to thank his parents. Finally, he would like to thank Casabuena Cultural Productions for this wonderful opportunity. If Ben sounds like someone you want to talk to, dial 1800-thisisnotarealnumber. Enjoy the show(s).

Kafka

Madeline Vlam is fifteen and in ninth grade at Friends Select School. She has been in many shows, including (not limited to) the Laramie Project, 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee, The Little Mermaid, Broadway on the Parkway, and many more. Madeline enjoys writing, singing, acting, reading, talking in third person, and many other things. She is thankful for her best friend Maggie, for being her best friend for almost sixteen years now (you poor soul).

Swift

Steven Lepore is an aspiring actor who’s been with Casabuena Cultural Productions for many years, as a stagelight manager, stage manager, and actor. He has been in multiple plays before such as Talk radio and Puberty The Game Show. He also does some acting for the Multimedia Club at Saul High School, of which he is soon-to-be graduating from.

We are pleased to announce the casting for our evening of One Act Plays in June!!
It is going to be a really wonderful night of theater!

Hamlette
Hamlette – Autumn Angelettie
Laertes/Ophelia/Player – Batya Reich
Horatio/ 2nd Player – Colin Polisano
Queen/King/Host – Faith Yesner
Ghost/Polonius – Paul Del Signore
Francisco – Jared Taylor
Bernardo – Ben Vlam

The Philadelphia
Mark – Thomas Taylor
AL – Jared Taylor
The Waitress – Katherine Cooper

Words Words Words
Kafka – Madeline Vlam
Swift – Steven Lepore
Milton – Ben Vlam

Life Comes to The Old Maid
Fay – Lia Taylor
Mave – Marilyn Leah