Kathleen Chalfant, Mary Testa, Constance Shulman & More to Star in WOMEN OF FIRE; HELL FROZE OVER Benefit Workshop

Chris Henry

(Writer/Director) is an award-winning theatre director and writer based in New York City. WRITING/DIRECTING CREDITS WITH ROYAL FAMILY: Anne of Green Gables: Part 1 (based on the novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery), Anne of Green Gables: Part 2 (based on the novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery), WOMEN ON FIRE: Stories from the Frontlines, WOMEN ON FIRE: Scorching the Dividing Lines, , Louie, Red, and the Jazzman (in collaboration with Wycliffe Gordon), Nobody Suspects a Butterfly (originally a feature film treatment Henry wrote for Ross Greenburg, Former President of HBO Sports), MM2000 (in collaboration with Shane W. Evans) and Opal Ann Meets the Fabulous Kit Katt, A Play with Musical Fantasies (in collaboration with Summer Hyde and Daniel A. Weiss). DIRECTING CREDITS WITH ROYAL FAMILY: Brass Heart the musical, thoughts of a COLORED MAN on a day when the sun set too early, LOVE/SICK, Four Last Things, Dedalus Lounge, Safe Home. NYC DIRECTING HIGHLIGHTS: Joe (Cherry Lane Mentor Project), Trans-Euro Express (Irish Arts Center), Art of War (Madison Square Garden), Sharpen Your Blade ("Time Out" Critic's Pick), Fishbowl (New York Magazine Critic's pick), Suicide Society (Winner Best Director). ACTORS THEATRE OF LOUISVILLE: The Actor's Nightmare, Grace of I, Dog Named Becky, One Hundred Women, Electric Roses, Sure Thing. Henry is twice nominated for the Zelda Fichlander award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and won the New England Theater Conference Regional Directors Award.

Lorna Ventura

(Co-Director/Choreographer) is a director/choreographer with a long list of credits, from Broadway to film and television. Ventura was just nominated for a Helen Hayes award for her work on American Prophet. Some of her choreography credits include working alongside impressive directors such as James Mangold in Kate And Leopold and Fred Schepisi in It Runs In The Family and in-house choreographer for seasons 1-4 of "Gossip Girl" including "Valley Girls," "In The Realm Of Bases," "It's A Wonderful Lie," "Hi Society" and "Disco Stick," as well as the pilot and season 1 & 2 for "Carries Diaries." These opportunities allowed Lorna to work directly with celebrities such as Hugh Jackman, Meg Ryan, Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Chace Crawford, and Anna Sophia Robb to name a few. Some of her favorite theater directors who have served as mentors and teachers are George C. Wolfe, Joe Mantello, and Kathleen Marshall. Favorite Broadway credits include Wicked, (performer original Broadway company), Grease (performer original Broadway company), All Shook Up (Associate Choreographer), Nice Work If You Can Get It (SDC observer and assistant to Kathleen Marshall).

ROYAL FAMILY's mission is to galvanize the Times Square community by cultivating raw talent, collaborating with seasoned artists, and inspiring audiences with a diversity of lion-hearted theatre. To us, everyone in the theatre community is not only royalty but family. Our programs and productions give artists space at all stages of their careers. We don't want to tell just any story: we want to best serve artists in telling their own stories. In today's political and social climate, it is also more important than ever to celebrate all voices-especially those underrepresented in the traditional theatre space. At Royal Family, we celebrate the work of women and queer artists, playwrights of color, works with LGBTQIA themes, and artists of all ages and body types.

Royal Family has been a creative incubator of original, humanistic plays for over a decade. Bravery and fearlessness are imperative to our process. Artists and audiences alike are challenged in a creative safe space to explore the humor and the tangled truths of the human condition. As actor and first-time playwright Anthony Rapp (Rent, Dazed and Confused, Star Trek: Discovery) observes, "Royal Family is committed to truthful, heartfelt, alive, theatrical storytelling. It's vital to the human experience and hard to come by."

Royal Family was established in 2007 by Katie Avebe, Mary Bernardi, Chris Henry and Andy Theodorou as a home for artists wishing to challenge and transform the traditional theatre canon. Since its launch, Royal Family has developed lasting relationships with highly regarded theatre professionals such as Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America, Tony-Nominee Wit), John Cariani (Tony Nominee Fiddler on the Roof, The Band's Visit, Something Rotten), JoAnn M. Hunter (School of Rock, On a Clear Day, Cinderella, SuperYou), and Anthony Rapp (Rent, If/Then, Dazed and Confused); and has partnered with artists including Adriane Lenox (Tony Winner Doubt, Tony Nominee After Midnight), Mary Testa (Tony Nominee On the Town, Tony Nominee 42nd Street, Tony Nominee Oklahoma), Stephanie J. Block (Tony Winner The Cher Show, Tony Nominee The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Tony Nominee Falsettos), Andréa Burns (In The Heights, On Your Feet), Maddie Corman (Accidentally Brave, Some Kind of Wonderful, Next Fall), Adrienne C. Moore (Orange is the New Black, For Colored Girls...), Constance Shulman (Orange is the New Black, The Rose Tattoo), Penny Fuller (Tony Nominee Applause, Tony Nominee The Dinner Party), Taye Diggs (Rent, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), and Ayodele Casel and Torya Beard (Funny Girl, Diary of a Tap Dancer V.4 ). Our productions have been reviewed by The New York Times, Time Out, The Village Voice, The Boston Globe, Time Out London, The London Times, and The Irish Times and featured three years in a row in the esteemed Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Highlights over the past five years include the New World Stages production of Anthony Rapp's Without You, the second annual Female+ Forward Festival, a short dance film featuring Kenita Miller titled See Her, the first annual Female+ Forward Festival, featuring new work by Queen Esther, Rosa Arredondo, and Iman Shuk, curated and directed by Royal Family 's creative Director Lorna Ventura, the World Premiere of Anne of Green Gables: Part 1 starring Ali Ewoldt, a World Premiere workshop of Anne of Green Gables: Part 2 starring Doreen Montalvo, Women on Fire: Stories from the Frontlines and Women on Fire: Scorching the Dividing Lines which featured a rotating cast of more than 40 women, including Kathleen Chalfant, Maddie Corman, Catherine Curtin, Pamela Dunlap, Ali Ewoldt, Penny Fuller, Laura Gomez, Cady Huffman, Cynthia Mace, Adriane Lenox, Julie Halston, Stephanie J. Block, Adrienne C. Moore, Laila Robins, Constance Shulman, Mary Testa, Tonye Patano, Maryann Plunkett, Alysia Reiner, Lianah Sta. Ana, Ashley Williams and more, and a workshop, Diary of a Tap Dancer Vol. 4, conceived and choreographed by Ayodele Casel and directed by Torya Beard that kicked off Royal Family's 10th anniversary season. In 2017, thoughts of a COLORED MAN on a day when the sun set too early by playwright Keenan Scott II was a collaboration between stage and television star-turned-choreographer Taye Diggs, choreographer Jenny Parsinen, and Royal Family's Emerging Artist Program. This play premiered on Broadway in the fall of 2021. In 2016, Royal Family premiered Rock and Roll Refugee, a biographical musical about Genya Ravan, who also wrote the music and lyrics. The Polish World War II refugee and Holocaust survivor broke into the rock scene at a time when it was a predominantly male field, forming the first all-girl band and becoming the first female music producer. The New York Times' Laura Collins-Hughes praised the production as "exciting" and lauded its "strikingly female gaze." Other Royal Family highlights include premiering Tony Award nominee John Cariani's comedy LOVE / SICK, the darker cousin to his widely produced hit play Almost Maine as well as presenting co-productions with The Menier Chocolate Factory, Anonymous Ensemble, and The New York Musical Theater Festival. IG ROYALFAMILYPRODUCTIONS