Gents Can’t Measure

Program Note

Bios

Eloise Carter (playwright)

Helen Romeu (playwright)

Paco Tolson (director) Off-Broadway: Fiasco Theater’s productions of Twelfth Night and Pericles at Classic Stage Company, and The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Red Bull, 2024 Lortel nom.); Poor Yella Rednecks and Vietgone (2017 Lortel nom.) at Manhattan Theatre Club; SUMO (Ma-Yi Theater/The Public Theater); The Wind and The Rain (Vineyard Theater/En Garden Arts); The Unwritten Song (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Slavey (Clubbed Thumb); The Children of Vonderly (Ma-Yi Theater). Regional: to the yellow house (La Jolla Playhouse); Fiasco’s Measure for Measure (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Winter’s Tale and Vietgone (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Peter and the Starcatcher, Vietgone and Poor Yella Rednecks (South Coast Rep). Film & TV: Cupertino; Billions, Law & Order: Organized Crime, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Prodigal Son, Search Party, The Good Fight, Madam Secretary, and 7 DAY GIG. Proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, SEIU, Ensemble Studio Theater, and The Actors Center. @pacotolson

Aryana Asefirad is a first generation Iranian-American born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.   She is currently based in New York City.  TV Credits include The Savant on Apple TV+. Regional Theatre credits include Long Wharf Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Gloucester Stage Company, LES Shakespeare Co. and Rita Morgenthau Theatre.  Prior to pursuing a career in the arts, Aryana received her B.A from the University of California, Irvine in Public Health Policy and International Studies. Instagram: aryana.asefirad

Gibson Frazier Off-Broadway: Regretfully So The Birds Are, Mr. Burns (Playwrights Horizons); Tumacho (Clubbed Thumb); For All the Women…, 10 Out of 12 (SoHo Rep); There Are No More Big Secrets (Rattlestick); Telephone (Cherry Lane); God’s Ear (Vineyard, New Georges); The Internationalist (Vineyard, 13p). Regionally: Mark Taper; Rough Crossing (w/ Tony Randall); Death of a Salesman (w/ Jack Klugman). Film: Unsane; Frances Ha; Illusion (w/ Kirk Douglas); Man of the Century (also co-writer/producer); Disclosure Day (directed by Steven Spielberg, upcoming); and The Great Beyond (directed by J.J. Abrams, upcoming). Television: Girls5Eva; Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; The Other Two; The Knick; Blue Bloods; The Good Wife; Hunters.  Writer/Director of No Longer/Not Yet currently in post-production.

Andy Grotelueschen (he/him) is a Fiasco Theater company member. For Fiasco: Cymbeline/Cloten, Cymbeline, Prince/Stepsister/Milky White, Into the Woods (Lortel nom), the Duke, Measure for Measure, Launce/Duke, Two Gentlemen of Verona (St. Clair Bayfield Award), Argan, Imaginary Invalid, Toby Belch, Twelfth Night, Simonedes/Bolt, Pericles; Broadway: Tootsie: the Musical (Tony nomination), The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Cyrano de Bergerac; Off-Broadway: Assassins (CSC), Tumacho (Clubbed Thumb), Taming of the Shrew (TFANA), The Odyssey (Public Works/Delacorte), Monstrosity (13P); Regional: Willamstown, Berkeley Rep, McCarter, The Guthrie, Old Globe, Trinity Rep, Yale Rep, Long Wharf, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Folger, Shakespeare DC, American Repertory Theater. TV: The Gilded Age, Lincoln Rhyme:Hunt for the Bone Collector, Elementary, The Good Wife, The Good Cop, The Knick. Film: Disney's Snow White (voice of Sleepy), A Complete Unknown, The Legend of Juan Jose Mundo, Música, Here Today, Coin Heist, Ordinary World, Still on the Road, Tumorhead.

Devin E. Haqq (he/him) is a Brooklyn based theatre artist, arts educator, and award-winning filmmaker. He has performed both Off-Broadway and regionally and his films have screened at numerous film festivals around the world. He has directed workshops and staffed as an associate director on productions for such organizations as The Public Theatre, The Roundabout Theatre Company, The Folger, Shakespeare’s Globe, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Fiasco, and the National Black Theatre. Regional Theatre: Fiasco Theater's Bartleby at The Old Globe, Master Harold and the Boys at Schoolhouse Theatre (Winner - Broadwayworld Best Supporting Performer in a Play), Fiasco Theater's Measure for Measure at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, As You Like It at Arden Theatre Company. Off-Broadway: Fiasco's Pericles and Knight of the Burning Pestle, The Winning Side (World Premiere), Richard III and Macbeth at Epic Theatre Ensemble; Knives in Hens at 59E59 Theaters (NYT Critic's Pick); All God's Chillun' Got Wings at JACK. Broadway Directing Credits: Pirates! The Penzance Musical (assistant director). Other Directing Credits: Blues for an Alabama Sky at Seattle Rep (assistant director), Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Folger Theatre (associate director), Shakespeare: Call & Response at The Public Theatre (assistant director), Pass Over at Luna Stage Company. Film/TV Directing Credits: The Woods Maiden, Mac N Beth, The Mark (Best Narrative Short 2021 Atlanta Shortsfest), Ambition’s Debt (Best Narrative Feature at 2017 American Black Film Festival), The Assassin. Additional Credits: M.F.A. from University of Alabama. Devin is a 2026 semi-finalist for the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Center, a 2024 Drama League Directing Project Fellow, an alumni of the Roundabout Directing Group and Mercury Store Directing Technique, a 2022 NY Emmy Award nominee, and a recipient of the Paul Robeson Award-Honorable Mention at the 2018 Newark Black Film Festival.

Alanna Saunders most recently got to play alongside her 3 siblings in Fiasco’s Comedy of Errors at Actors Theater of Louisville! Some other credits : Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Original Broadway Cast); Hair (Sacramento Music Circus), Joseph… - Narrator (Ivoryton Playhouse); Safety Not Guaranteed (Brooklyn Academy of Music); Scotland, PA (Roundabout); Bonnie&Clyde - Bonnie (Pioneer Theatre); One Jewish Boy - Alex (Theatre J); White Christmas - Judy (Berkshire Theatre Group); TV/film: CBS’s Bull, 18 1/2, Peter Pan Live! (Tiger Lily); When not on stage? You'll most likely find her reading, having solo dance parties, or running the business she co-founded with her family (www.spectra.theater) all other shenanigans: @alannasaun  

Jasmine Sharma NYC: Twelfth Night (The Public/Delacorte), Love You More (The Tank), you don’t have to do anything (HERE Arts). Regional: Calvin Berger: A Musical (Colony Theatre), The Wolves (McCarter Theatre), Wives (Aurora Theatre). Film: Reimagined (dir. Mateo Messina). Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist, Colt Coeur Resident, Kilroys Core Member, Playwrights’ Center Core Writer 2024-2027. @jasminesharma and jasminesharma.org for everything else!

Sathya Sridharan Broadway: Life of Pi. Off-Broadway: Glass. Kill. What If If Only. (Public), Wives (Playwrights Horizons), An Ordinary Muslim (New York Theater Workshop), India Pale Ale(Manhattan Theater Club),Winter’s Tale (Mobile Unit), Richard II (WNYC), Two Brown Porters (The Pool Plays), Two Mile Hollow (WP Theater), Ultimate Beauty Bible (Page 73), Frontieres Sans Frontieres (Bushwick Starr). Regional: Life of Pi (A.R.T.), Our Town (Portland Center Stage), Hapgood (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Philadelphia Story (Chautauqua Theatre Company). TV: “Little America”, “Succession”, “Kaleidoscope”, “Blindspot”, “Elementary”, “Prodigal Son”, “Two Sentence Horror Stories”; Film: The Whale, Minor Premise, Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts (SXSW), “Curfew” (Venice).Awards: Princess Grace Award (Grace Le Vine). MFA: NYU.

Emily Young (she/her) is an actor, musician, writer, director and educator. She is one of Fiasco Theater’s original company members. For Fiasco: Queen/Belaria, Cymbeline, Little Red Riding Hood/Rapunzel, Into the Woods, Isabella/Mistress Overdone, Measure for Measure, Sylvia/Lucetta, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Toinette, Imaginary Invalid, Viola, Twelfth Night, Gussie, Merrily We Roll Along; Broadway: How I Learned to Drive u/s, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; Off-Broadway: The Servant of Two Masters, Romeo and Juliet, Colorado Regional: Trinity Repertory Company, Folger Theater, McCarter Theater, Old Globe, North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival. As a director: Spring Awakening at Ohio Northern University, Fiasco readings, The Lucky Chance, Sight Unseen. TV/Film: Living With Yourself, The Knick, God of Love.

Eliza Anastasio (stage manager)

About Fiasco

FIASCO THEATER is an ensemble theater company based in NYC that offers dynamic, joyful, actor-driven productions, and the highest quality, accessible, and affordable training for emerging artists. Partner theaters in NYC have included Classic Stage Co, TFANA,  New Victory and Roundabout Theatre, where Fiasco currently serves as the first-ever Company in Residence. Fiasco’s training programs offer emerging artists the chance to train in Fiasco’s joy-based, actor-centered approach to theater-making. To date the company’s award-winning work has been seen by over 200,000 audience members in NYC and across the country, including over 13,000 school children, and The New York Times has called Fiasco “a force to reckon with in the American theater.”

Coming Up

Play|Ground

Adults deserve the opportunity to play, and play is integral to our growth and sustenance as humans and as artists! We know how difficult it can be, to find the time and resources to prioritize play. Enter Play|Ground! Taught by members of Fiasco’s Faculty, Play|Ground workshops will be rooted in play, embodied practice, and community. Each workshop and gathering will include refreshments and time to reflect on our artistic processes. 

Registration is based on a sliding scale and participants can apply to our Access Fund for reimbursement on expenses incurred in order to participate (childcare, eldercare, or other accessibility-related expenses). 

Learn more and register today: https://www.fiascotheater.com/playground 

Play|Ground is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.