cast
in order of appearance
GUS
Ross Bolen
Ross Bolen is a Nashville-based actor, director, and arts educator with over 60 professional regional theatre credits as an actor and director in Nashville, Cincinnati, Louisville, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles. Ross currently serves as director of the theatre program at Franklin Road Academy and an adjunct professor at Belmont University. Recent area performance credits include The Hiding Place, The Crucible, Frost/Nixon, The Comedy of Errors and Henry V.
CLaudia
Caroline Conner
Caroline is thrilled to be returning to Actors Bridge! She graduated from Belmont with a double major in Theatre and Math (as well as a minor in Japanese), and you may have seen her in the most recent production of The Vagina Monologues, Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s Macbeth (Lady M), Circle Players’ Peter and the Starcatcher (Molly) or HPAC’s Putnam County Spelling Bee (Schwarzy). You can frequently find her doing long form and musical improv at Third Coast Comedy Club! Much love to this cast and crew.
Honor
Vali Forrister
Vali is the Producing Artistic Director of the Actors Bridge Ensemble, which she co-founded in 1995. She has produced over 100 productions for the company, has acted and directed over 30, and authored six. She founded and leads Act Like A GRRRL, an autobiographical writing and performance program for teenage girls and adult women to gain public voice by articulating their lived experience.
Vali is a recipient of the Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence Award as a “Trailblazer,” the Vanderbilt University Women Mentoring Women Award. She is a recipient of the Broadway World STAR Award and the Louisa Nelson Award honoring women of achievement, inspiration, and vision in Nashville. She is a member of Leadership Nashville’s Class of 2014.
Her work as an actor has been called “a tour-de-force,” and “seemingly effortless” by the Tennessean, “consistently excellent,” “major league” and “expert” by the Nashville Scene, and “a lesson on the acting craft without revealing that craft,” by stagecritic.com. BroadwayWorld describes her acting as “exhilarating and heartbreaking at the same time, giving audiences further proof of the sheer power of Forrister’s talents.”
Sophie
Jillian Rice
crew
author
Joanna Murray- Smith
Joanna Murray-Smith’s many plays have been performed around the world. They include THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES, which ran in the West End, BOMBSHELLS, NINETY (all produced at Melbourne Theatre Company), RAPTURE, NIGHTFALL, REDEMPTION, LOVE CHILD, ATLANTA (all at the Playbox Theatre Company), FLAME, and RIDGE’S LOVERS. HONOUR was produced on the West End in 2006 starring Diana Rigg and was previously directed at the Royal National Theatre in London by Roger Michell to rave reviews. Previously HONOUR had a public reading in New York in 1996 with Meryl Streep and Sam Waterston and went on to have a Broadway production in 1998. The play has had productions in Brazil, Portugal, Malaysia, New Zealand, San Francisco, Canada, and Tokyo. Many of Joanna’s plays have been adapted for radio, including Australian, BBC, American and Swedish radio. Her plays have been nominated for many awards and HONOUR won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in 1996. Joanna’s first opera (libretto), LOVE IN THE AGE OF THERAPY, was produced by Opera Australia at the Melbourne International Festival (composed by Paul Grabowsky) in October 2002 and was seen at the Sydney Opera House in early 2003 as part of the Opera Australia season and the Sydney Festival. Joanna is the author of three published novels, “Sunnyside” (Penguin 2005), “Truce” (Penguin 1994), and “Judgment Rock” (Penguin, 2002), which has been sold to Germany. Her play BOMBSHELLS was nominated for the Outstanding Touring Production Award at the twenty-sixth Annual DORA Mavor Moore Awards in Toronto, Canada.
director
Lori Triolo
Lori Triolo is an actor, director, and master teacher whose career spans New York, Los Angeles, and Vancouver. A native of Queens, she began her training with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse, where she later joined the faculty. She has since built two black box theaters. The Belmont Playhouse in NY with a board of directors that included Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, and Talia Shire. In Vancouver, Lori served as Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Beaumont Stage, and co-founded The Evolving Arts Collective. Her film, TV and theater work includes more than 100 credits, with recurring roles on Riverdale, Fringe, Smallville, The 4400, and Battlestar Galactica. Her screen and stage work has garnered nominations for British Columbia’s Leo and Jessie Awards. Triolo is the creator of FitzMeisner®, a signature approach that integrates the Meisner Technique with Fitzmaurice Voicework® to cultivate greater freedom, spontaneity, and emotional truth in performance.
stage manager
Kat Tierney-Smith
Credits include: Madea’s Farewell Play Tour (Tyler Perry Studio’s); Kodachrome, The Vagina Monologues, How to Catch a Flying Woman, Citizen: An American Lyric (Actor’s Bridge Ensemble); The Whale, Les Liasons Dangereuses, End of the Rainbow (Actors Express); Of Mice and Men, Time Between Us, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Serenbe Playhouse); All Childish Things, Tigers Be Still (Aurora Theatre), John Adam’s A Flowering Tree, The Remarkable Farkle McBride, Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra); Angry Fags (7 Stages); Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood, Body Awareness (Synchronicity Theatre). Kat has been a part of the Nashville theatre scene since 2017 and is pleased to call ABE her home base.
Lighting Designer
Richard Davis, LC, MIES
Richard is a Senior Partner with ARDEE DESIGN GROUP, LLC, which specializes in Entertainment and Architectural lighting. He has completed projects across the spectrum for such organizations as Gaylord Entertainment, Celebrity Cruise Lines, Belmont University, HGTV, MTSU, Vanderbilt University, Dance Theatre of Tennessee, Shop at Home Networks, Discovery Networks, and CNN Washington.
Prior to joining ADG, Richard developed a diverse portfolio while working in NYC, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Japan. While he has worked on various Film, Television, and Concert touring projects, his specialty resides firmly in lighting for Theatrical and Dance. Such varied projects include “Peter and the Star Catcher”, “42nd Street”, “Godspell”, “Urinetown” (Belmont University), “The Wizard of Oz”, “Rock of Ages” (Hillsboro Players), “Detroit 67’’ , “Kodachrome”, “Citizen”, “Eurydice”, “Marisol”, “Men on Boats”, “Outside Paradise” , ”The Warrior”, “The Piper”, “Atlanta” (Actor’s Bridge Ensemble),
producer
Tracy Taylor Coats
Producer
Daryn Jackson
scenic designer
Paul Gatrell
House manager
Stacey Hucks
