Cast and Creatives Set For FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT at Arena Stage

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announced the cast and creative team for Fake It Until You Make It. A whirlwind of competition, chaos, and comedic revelation, the satire by Larissa FastHorse (The Thanksgiving Play) will make its East Coast premiere April 3 – May 4, 2025, in Arena Stage's Kreeger Theater, directed by Michael John Garcés (Guthrie Theater's For the People). 

“Our team is grateful to continue to develop this new farce with Arena Stage,” shared FastHorse. “The DMV audiences are going to get to help us shape this new play with their laughter and questions. This is my first time creating a new work in the area, I'm thrilled to be doing it in Hana's first full season at Arena.”

Fake It Until You Make It follows the escalating rivalry between Wynona, the Native American proprietor of N.O.B.U.S.H., and River, her white counterpart at Indigenous Nations Soaring. As their collision ensnares colleagues and bystanders, secrets highlighting the absurdities of ambition and authenticity become unraveled. Fake It Until You Make It is about being whoever you want to be, even when it's not who you are.

“I am incredibly happy to be developing and premiering Fake It Until You Make It at Arena Stage in co-production with Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles,” said Garcés. “Both cities have been artistic homes for me, and both are places which, in very different ways, epitomize what is the best and worst about the American experiment. They are also places where people can, and often do, for better and definitely for worse, fake it until they make it—or go bust. Washington has always had incredibly smart, sophisticated, and sharp audiences, and I'm eager for it to play here and to learn from how folks react. I think Arena Stage is the perfect place for this satire in these volatile, uncertain, and contentious times. I can't wait to get started.”

The Arena production will star Noah Bean (Public Theater's Yellowface) as Theo, Eric Stanton Betts (Hollywood Bowl's Kinky Boots) as Mark, five-time Emmy nominee Amy Brenneman (ABC's NYPD Blue, CBS's Judging Amy) as River, Brandon Delsid (Amazon Prime's This Is Me…Now) as Krys, Shyla Lefner (Broadway's Our Town) as Wynona, and Burgandi Trejo Phoenix (Netflix's Spirit Rangers) as Grace. They will be joined by understudies Josh Bywater (HBO's Somebody Somewhere), Aleisha Force (Virginia Shakes' Antony and Cleopatra), and Kenny Ramos (Peter Pan National Tour). Lefner and Trejo Phoenix step into the roles previously announced to be played by Tonantzin Carmelo and Dakota Ray Hebert, respectively.

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