Max and the Truffle Pig (2008)

Suzanne Bradbeer (Book)

Awards include NYFA, the Berrilla Kerr; Dayton Playhouse FutureFest; Jane Chambers Honorable Mention; Stanley Drama Award Finalist; Heideman Finalist. Nominated by Theresa Rebeck, Suzanne was a fellow of The Lark's Playwrights' Workshop. Other residencies include The New Harmony Project, New River Dramatists, and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Suzanne's play FULL BLOOM premiered at Barrington Stage Company, where it was named best new play of the season by the Berkshire Eagle. FULL BLOOM has had many subsequent productions around the country and was published in the Smith & Kraus Best Plays series, as was BETHLEHEM, PA; and SOMETIMES ROMEO IS SAD. Other plays include: THE SLEEPING GIRL, developed at BSC, Six Figures, and the Stamford Center for the Arts, prior to production by Relentless Theatre Company; and COCUS AND DOOT, a children's musical, commissioned and produced by Vital Children's Theatre. Suzanne was a writer in the collaborative project, SPEAKEASY, which enjoyed a sold out run at Joe's Pub. She is a member of the EST Playwrights Unit, the Dramatists Guild, the Actors Studio P/D Workshop, and the BMI Workshop.

Bert Draesel (Music)

Bert was in the BMI Workshop under the direction of Lehman Engel. In 2005 he graduated from NYU's Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program and is now a full-time composer working on different projects at various stages of development; "BAGELS AND LUCK", lyrics by Joe Cirillo, book, Mark Weston. Last December he had a reading at St. Clement's Theater of MERRY-GO-ROUND, words by Harry Cohen. His latest works in progress are FANCY NANCY, based on a children's book of the same title, words by Jim Semmelman; and IMMIGRATION, lyrics, Nancy Leeds and book, Dick Silver. Past productions include TROUBADOUR, Riverwest Theater, Greenwich Village, EVERYMAN and BOUNCING BACK both Triangle Theater, METEOR GIRL produced at LaMama's., MASK OF THE DANCING PRINCESS, Vital Theater, NYC.
In cabaret, he wrote and played the music for STEP INTO THE LIGHT and GALLERY at "Don't tell Mama"" with lyricist and performer Russ Thacker. He also wrote several contemporary liturgical settings and religious songs, including REJOICE and CELEBRATION recorded by Scepter Records, NOW HYMNS FOR CHILDREN, PRAISE AND JUBILEE, all published by E.B.Marks.

Nancy Leeds (Lyrics)

Productions include: GREAT SCOT (The Musical Story of Robbie Burns), Theatre Four NYC; SCROOGE, Herberger Theatre, Phoenix; TEMPEST, Goodspeed Opera House; SOMETHING FUNNY HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE MANGER, Theatre at The Church of the Holy Trinity, NYC; THE MASK OF THE DANCING PRINCESS, Vital Theatre. Current projects include: HELP! HELP! Ms. Leeds has written lyrics to songs recorded by the Mills Brothers, Johnny Nash, The Shirells, Peter Dean, Joy Ford, The Chad Mitchell Trio, Carol Townes & Fifth Avenue, and Leroy Holmes. She attended Lehman Engle's BMI Workshop, is a member of ASCAP, and is listed in Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the World. Ms. Leeds also a noted sculptor whose works are in leading collections and museums. She owned and operated Roseland Ballroom, which was founded by her father, Lou Brecker.

Kim Vasquez (Executive Producer)

Kim Vasquez/ Gray Lady Entertainment, Inc. (Executive Producer) is a theatrical producing and consulting company. She is currently a general producing partner on Pterodactyl Island, book and lyrics by Peter Morris, with music by Michael Jeffrey and Simon Says a play by Mat Schaffer. Other NYMF shows: About Face Book and Lyrics by David Arthur, Music by Jeff Lodin (Producing Consultant/General Manager 2008). Such Good Friends with book, music and lyrics by Noel Katz 2007. Such Good Friends was the recipient of five theatre awards including: Best New Musical of the Year from Talkin' Broadway 2007 and Emerald Man with book by Janet Cole Valdez, Music by Tom Valdez and Lyrics by Marc Bosserman 2006. This year, she is happy to be Executive Producer of the Max and the Truffle Pig team. As a Director, Kim directed the first-female version of Fully Committed by Becky Mode, starring Amy Stiller as "Sam" and Beirut by Alan Bowne. As an Actor, Kim has performed in many stage productions most recently Arthur Kopit's Chamber Music playing Woman with Notebook. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, The National Shakespeare Conservatory, The Commercial Theatre Institute and she is a founding Producer of the New York Musical Theatre Festival and an adjunct member of The Broadway League.

Erica Gould (Director)

Erica Gould's recent directing credits include At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq with David Strathairn, Bebe Neuwirth, Daniel Sunjata, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Cerveris (THE FIRE DEPT/45 Bleecker); SpeakEasy, a theatrical event by Theresa Rebeck, Neil LaBute, Suzanne Bradbeer, Anton Dudley, Rajiv Joseph, others(The Public Theater/Joe's Pub); the world premieres of LaBute's plays autobahn and Stand Up (with Mos Def); What Light From Darkness Grows by Janine Carter, with Phylicia Rashad, Harry Lennix (NPR—Gracie Allen/Golden Reel Awards); As You Like It (The Shakespeare Theatre/ACA, DC); The Tempest (Fordham @ Lincoln Center); Adopt a Sailor with Sam Waterston, Bebe Neuwirth, Liev Schreiber (Brave New World/Town Hall); Gould's adaptation of Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars, Part 1 (Culture Project, Williamstown, Yale); development workshops of Constance Congdon's Paradise Street (NY Theatre Workshop, w/ Olympia Dukakis), Jose Rivera's Brainpeople (Playwrights Horizons, Hartford Stage, ACT), Lynn Rosen's Puddy Tat (CenterStage, Baltimore). As Director/Choreographer: City of Angels (Buffalo). Upcoming: world premieres of Edith Freni's KidStuff (Theatre Row) and Gregory Moss's radio play Amanda Tears. Teaching: Yale, NYU, Pace, O'Neill/National Theatre Institute, others. Founder/Co-Artistic Director of THE FIRE DEPT.

Doug Silver (Music Director)

DOUG SILVER is a composer, arranger, vocal coach and music director from Queens, NY. As composer: Sidd (Off-Broadway, 2006) and The Greenwich Village Follies, to open in 2009. He has had his music featured by Clear Space Productions, Any Minute Now, Raw Impressions, Kinesis Dance Company, and Manhattan Theatre Source, where most recently his short musical "Swan Song" was produced as part of their 2007 Estrogenius festival. Favorite musical director credits include "Sisters of Swing," "Me and My Girl," and "Romance/Romance." Doug is on the faculty of the Nightingale-Bamford School as a piano teacher and is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman-Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. He conducts an annual Vocal Harmony Workshop as well as mounting numerous showcases and cabarets for his various vocal students. www.DougSilver.com.

Judith Gwyn Brown (Original Story)

Judith Gwyn Brown has illustrated over forty books for children, and has also written six books, including Max and the Truffle Pig, and The Mask of the Dancing Princess. She came to her work early, having read fairy tales as a child, and was soon drawn to a literary imagination in the books she loved as she grew up. Her work has been published by Harper, Macmillan, Atheneum, Doubleday and Houghton Mifflin. Many of the original drawings and paintings from the books are in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum, the Boston Public Library, the Huntington Library in California, etc. She has been listed in Who’s Who of American Art, and Contemporary Authors. Most recently, Judith Gwyn Brown’s new original paintings in oil on canvas reflect a vision, mysterious and personal to New York, where she is a native, having attended the High School of Music and Art, Cooper Union and New York University, where she received her B.A. These new paintings put forth the yearning intrigue of people responding to each other in the city.

Antoinette LaVecchia (Countess Lily Augusta Marie)

Antoinette most recently returned from Portland Center Stage where she played "Diane" in Little Dog Laughed. NYC: 3 Sisters From Queens/ NY Playwrights Lab; The Bottle House/Public Theatre; Puccini: A Composer's Journey/Carnegie Hall; String of Pearls/Primary Stages; Magic Hands Freddy/Soho Playhouse; Kimberly Akimbo/Manhattan Theatre Club; Duet/Greenwich St. Theatre; Almost Blue/Flatiron Theatre; NYTW's Usual Suspects, MCC, Lincoln Center Director's Lab & Institute, Urban Stages, Lark Theatre, EST, The Salon and others. Regionally: Williamstown, Shakespeare on the Sound, ACT, Weston Playhouse, the "B" Street Theatre, Barrington Stage Co., Hartford Theaterworks, Wilma Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Hangar Theatre and others. Film/TV: Delirious, Jesus' Son, Dirty Laundry, The Sopranos, "Law & Order", "L&O SVU" and "One Life to Live." Education: MFA-NYU, Moscow Art Theatre, Philippe Gaulier & Theatre de Complicite. She taught at NYU's Grad Acting Program, The Actor's Center and co-created a theater piece in Ethiopia with 40 HIV+ orphans through WWO that performed at Ethiopia's National Theatre. Antoinette is a Drama League Directing Fellow and a 1997 Fox Fellowship recipient.

Jeremy Schwartz (Gerard)

Jeremy Schwartz has been on tv screens, movie screens, radios, and the stage. One time he even jumped on your bed while you were at work.

Kevin Michael Murphy (Max)

Kevin Michael Murphy(Max) is excited to be returning to the NYMF after last year appearing as Kip in the musical, With Glee. Other recents include: Flora the Red Menace(Opening Doors), and working with Stephen Schwartz on his new musical, Snapshots(Seaside Music Theater).Hailed by Gawker.com as "the most clueless boy in New York", Kevin can also be found on youtube in his webseries, the "Craig Stevens Video Blog." Kevin holds a masters from NYU, and a bachelors from James Madison University. Member of equity. Thanks to Gary Epstein, my parents, and you, for supporting new works.

Jen Albano (Suzette)

Jen Albano
Theater credits include: Back From the Front (The Working Theater); Ten by Twenty (The Atlantic Theater Co.); Chopper (EST); Hesh and The Issues Project: Fear (both with Naked Angels); Stuck (Rattlestick); The Dawn Powell Plays and Stepping Out w/ Mr. Markham (both with New Georges); King Of Clocks (Lincoln Center Director’s Lab); Mizlansky/Zilinsky (MTC). Film: Bittersweet Place (Jury Prize, Tribeca Film Festival); Ira & Abby; King Of The Corner; Pagans; Down To You; 200 Cigarettes; Didactic Encounter; Girl. Television: The Wedding Album; Law & Order (All three versions); Sopranos; Third Watch; All My Children; Second Opinion.

Cindy Cheung (Ethel (et al))

Most recent projects include a leading role in the indie film The Kids Are Alright, directed by Tze Chun and the audiobook narration of the novel The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang. Theater credits include Bernarda Alba (Lincoln Center workshop), Sides: The Fear Is Real (Mr. Miyagi's Theatre Company - founding member), Sonnets For An Old Century (H.E.R.E.), Antigone (NAATCO), Karaoke Stories (Imua!), Masha No Home (E.S.T.), The Karaoke Show (Project 400), Making Tracks (2G),Plug (Rude Mechanicals) and regional productions at A.C.T., South Coast Rep, Florida Studio Theater and East West Players. Film: Lady In The Water, Falling For Grace, Robot Stories, Red Doors, Spider-Man 2 and Speed for Thespians. TV: “Law and Order: SVU and Criminal Intent,” “Jonny Zero,” “Sex and the City,” “Sesame Street,” “Cosby,” “Seinfeld” and the FOX pilot “Julie Reno, Bounty Hunter.” Cindy received her MFA from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She lives in NYC with her husband, novelist Ed Lin.

Rob Skolits (Jean (et al))

Rob is excited to be back working with animals after his auspicious stage debut in first grade singing 'Bushel and a Peck' to a cow. Stage credits include Copenhagen (Vineyard Playhouse), Camp Logan (Boston Center for the Arts), Red State/ Blue State (E.S.T.), Forever Monday (Naked Angels), Under the Sign of the Hourglass (NY Ontological/Hysteric), Here Everything Still Floats (La MaMa), The Truth (Metropolitan Playhouse), 1984 (Off-World Theater), Twelfth Night (American Stage), and Suzanne Bradbeer's Lone Star Grace (Six Figures).

Erica Hemminger (Set Designer)

Meghan Healey (Costume Designer)

Meghan E. Healey (Costume Designer)- Most recent work includes the world premiere of Someday (Cornerstone Theater, Los Angeles), Max and the Truffle Pig (NYMTF, dir. Erica Gould) and a Spanish language production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession (Boundless Theater Co.). She is the recipient of the 2007 ACE Award and the 2007 HOLA for Best Costume Design for Zanahorias (Duke Theater). Her other work includes: the American Premiere of Lars Norén’s WAR (RPT, dir. Anders Cato), and world premieres of Rob Handel’s The Knights (Target Margin, Aristophanika Festival), Milk-n-Honey (Lightbox Theater Co., dir. Ellen Beckerman), Week 52 of Suzan Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays for the Public Theater (dir. Joanna Settle), Greenzone by Rob Handel (Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab, dir. Alec Duffy), points of departure (dir. Ron Daniels), Kissing Fidel by Eduardo Machado (dir. Michael John Garcés, INTAR), and Blues for a Grey Sun with Nilaja Sun (dir. Louis Moreno, INTAR).

Karen Spahn (Lighting Designer)

KAREN SPAHN (Lighting Designer) Design credits include: West Side Story, King and I, Guys and
Dolls (AMTSJ), Summer 2005/2006 (Hersheypark), Fraulein Else (Theatre Five), The Music Man
(Wagner College), The Tempest (Acting Company); Illustrated Radio Shows (Pickup
Performance Company), The Gravity of Means (Manhattan Class Company), four seasons with
the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Associate Lighting Designer, Wicked the Musical, South
Pacific (Lincoln Center).

Bob Griffin (Technical Supervisor)

Bob Griffin - Owner of Blackthorn Scenic Studio, Inc., currently represented on Broadway with 'In the Heights' and '[title of show]' and the upcoming 'Vanities, the Musical"

Kat Harris (Production Intern)

Kat Harris is a lyricist in NYU’s Musical Theatre Writing Program. She studied Classics at Brandeis University, and was a production associate for the Huntington Theatre’s new play festival.

Marie Reynolds (Marketing Director)

Marie Reynolds (Marketing Director) Founding producer of NYMF, Marie is also Marketing Director of ABOUT FACE and Executive Producer of Kramis Productions. Sarah Lawrence Theatre MFA. CTI graduate.

Lilith Beitchman (Assistant Stage Manager)

Producing credits include IRAQ: WHY ARE
WE BACK?, Anouilh’s ANTIGONE, Tennesse
William’s THE PURIFICATION. With
Brooklyn Stage Company: CHAMBER MUSIC
& THE DAY THE WHORES…, WAITING
FOR GODOT, MACBETH, OLD TIMES,
GHOSTS, OEDIPUS REX. She stage managed
BEIRUT for Kim Vasquez, Gray Lady
Entertainment. NYC acting credits include:
The Lead, MURDERESS IN BLACK MASK
(Richard Foreman’s Ontological Theatre),
The Inspector in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
(Perry St. Theater), The Courtesan
in COMEDY OF ERRORS (Hudson Guild
Theater), Ensemble in Lee Breuer’s THE
FLEA (PS 122, Mabou Mines). ‘I carry your
heart in my heart’, my darlings, David and
Maryjane Cole.

Nicholas Meo (Stage Manager)

Nick Meo has been stage managing in the city for the past year and he would love to thank everyone on this production who allowed him to be a part of this wondrous theatrical journey!