HONOREE & DIRECTOR

PLAYWRIGHT

DUSTIN WILLS was recently described by the Obie Award Committee as having an “ability to navigate chaos with precision,” and that about sums it up. Recent productions include Tennessee Williams’ sprawling Camino Real at Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Counterfeit Opera and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at Little Island (Best Theater of 2024, New York Magazine), Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play (2023 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Direction and Production), and John J. Caswell Jr.’s Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons/MCC). Dustin has devised new work with Teatro L’Arciliuto in Rome, Italy, trained with Augusto Boal in Theatre of the Oppressed legislative performance, and for a couple of years gave rogue tours of the Vatican. He is a 2023 Obie Award winner, Princess Grace Award recipient, and Baryshnikov Center Artist Resident 2018. He teaches in the Directing and Playwriting programs at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.

AWARD PRESENTER

Lexy Leuszler has developed works with Melis Aker, Florencia Cuenca, Georgina Escobar, Jaime Lozano, Eliana Pipes, Hansol Jung, Lina Patel, Brian Quijada, Tatiana Pandiani, and Jacinta Clusellas. As Literary Manager for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, she established the NMTC Incubator program alongside Alexander Gemignani. She has taught with Actors Theatre of Louisville, Court Theatre, Steppenwolf Theater, the National Theater Institute, Connecticut College, and the Kennedy Center.  Member of The Pack, the 2023 Kilroy’s Web and American Theatre Magazine's Role Call: People to Watch list. She is the Co-Artistic Director of the WildWind Performance Lab at Texas Tech University.

SPECIAL MUSICAL GUEST

Chris Bannow, Broadway: Daniel Fish’s Tony Award Winning Oklahoma!, The Elephant Manstarring Bradley Cooper (also West End, Theater Royal Haymarket). Off-Broadway: The Counterfeit Opera, The Marriage of Figaro (Little Island), Wolf Play (Lortel Award, MCC Theater and Soho Rep), Sleep No More (Punchdrunk), The Hairy Ape (Park Avenue Armory), Electra in a One Piece(Wild Project). Regional: Center Theater Group, Kennedy Center, Williamstown, Huntington, McCarter, Berkshire Theatre Group, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Boston Playwrights Theater. Film/TV : Not Fade Away, Three Christs, Screamers, Fidelity, “The Late Late Show with James Corden”. Boston University, Yale School of Drama.

HOST

Esco Jouléy is winning over audiences as “Sonya” in the acclaimed FX series DYING FOR SEX, alongside Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate, and previously starred opposite Patricia Clarkson and Brendan Gleeson in the Sundance series STATE OF THE UNION. Theater credits include: Trophy Boys (MCC) Wolf Play (MCC also SoHo Rep) and other recent theatre includes Merry Me (NYTW) Twelfth Night (The Old Globe) and As You Like It (La Jolla). Additional television includes BLINDSPOTTING (Starz), HIGH MAINTENANCE (HBO), INVENTING ANNA (Netflix), MONSTERLAND (Hulu), and the ABC Discovers Showcase.

PERFORMER, ROLE

DORCAS LEUNG (she/her) is an actor and artist. Earlier this year, she completed a run of "The Counterfeit Opera" (Little Island, NYC) as Polly Peachum, a new take on the legendary satire – The Beggar’s Opera. Other credits include, Broadway: The Notebook as Georgie/Others (u/s Young Allie), Gigi Van Tranh in Miss Saigon. Off-Broadway: Dou Yi in Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage Company). Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, translated by Hansol Jung (NAATCO/Two River Theater). Tour: Roles of Eliza, Angelica, Peggy/Maria, Hamilton (1st National). Select Regional Houses: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater,  Dallas Theater Center, Barrington Stage Company, Goodspeed Opera House, The MUNY. Television: “Bull,” “Madam Secretary” (CBS).

PERFORMER, ROLE

Brian Quijada is a playwright, actor, and composer whose original work includes Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, Kid Prince and Pablo, Somewhere Over the Border, and Mexodus. As an actor, Brian has appeared in MCC’s Wolf Play, The Public’s Oedipus El Rey, Roundabout’s Bobbie Clearly and Playwright’s Realm’s My Mañana Comes. TV credits include Law and Order SVU, Search Party and Blue Bloods. Brian is a recipient of 4 Jeff Awards, 2 Helen Hayes Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award, and is a 3-time Drama Desk nominee. He is a proud member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre and proud member of the Lucille Lortel winning-group, The Pack. 

PERFORMER, ROLE

Nicole Villamil, Actor. Romeo and Juliet (A.R.T),: Merry Me (New York Theatre Workshop), Wolf Play (MCC Theatre), Wolf Play (Soho Rep), How to load a Musket (59E59), Network (Broadway), Queens (LCT3), Lessons in Survival (Vineyard Theatre -Online Series), MUD (Boundless Theatre), Shakespeare’s R&J (Hangar Theatre), De Profundis (PlayMakers Rep), Tell me I’m not Crazy, The Rose Tattoo (Williamstown Theatre Festival) The Hunchback of Seville, The Love of the Nightingale (Trinity Repertory Co.); TELEVISION: New Amsterdam, The Last OG; [Edu] M.F.A., Brown/Trinity Repertory Co.; B.A., University of Pennsylvania. She is the 2023 Lucille Lortel Award Recipient for Outstanding Ensemble. @nicoleavillamil

EXEC. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, EN GARDE ARTS

Mitchell Winter, Theater credits include: Hamlet (dir. Kenny Leon, Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park), Wolf Play (dir. Dustin Wills, MCC & Soho Rep)(Lortel Award for Best Ensemble), Dracula and The Importance of Being Earnest (dir. David Auburn, Berkshire Theatre Group), Frontieres Sans Frontieres (Bushwick Starr), Redemption Story (ART/NY), A Winter’s Tale, A Doctor In Spite of Himself, American Night (Yale Rep), Sleep No More (Punchdrunk), Miss Saigon (Australian National Tour), Thoroughly Modern Millie (The Production Company), Normativity (NYMF), Die Fledermaus (Australian Opera Studio) and Joseph… Dreamcoat (Really Useful). Film/TV credits include: Mr. Robot (USA Network), Oh Jerome No (FX), If Not Love (official Sundance selection). MFA: Yale School of Drama.