ARTISTIC LEADERS
GABRIEL SHANKS
GABRIEL is a director, writer, producer, and Artistic Director of The Drama League of New York (dramaleague.org). He created and directed the television series EXTRA ROOM and the short films THE LEAST UNTRUE, ONE MORE THING, THE DAMNABLE DEPRIVATION OF DMITRI, and HEYBABE, which have been seen at the Madrid International Film Festival (Best Director and Series Nominations), Love and Hope International Film Festival (Best Short Film and Best Director Nominations), Stockholm Film Festival, Harlem International Film Festival, New Masculinites Festival (Opening Night Film), QFlix Philadelphia, Sicily WebFest, AltFest, New Faces New Voices, and more. His television script, THE RECIPE, created with Nilan, was selected for the 2021 Orchard Project Episodic Lab and was a Semi-Finalist at the New York Film & Television Festival. Onstage, Gabriel was one of the directors of Peculiar Works Project’s VILLAGE FRAGMENTS (OBIE Award); his work has been seen at LaMaMa, HERE, The Bushwick Starr, Ars Nova, Downtown Art, LPAC, BGSQD, New Ohio, CAP21, Abingdon, Labyrinth, Peculiar Works Project, New Georges and Judson Church (NYC) and venues in Seattle, Baltimore, Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, Vienna, Bucharest, Sofia and Budapest, among others. He has taught and lectured on directing across the country, most recently at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Actor’s Studio, and more.
CHERRYE J. DAVIS
An award-winning actor, poet, playwright, educator, and MC, CHERRYE is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (PHTS). New York: HOW TO MOURN AN AMERICAN (Little Island, LPAC), SWEET CHARIOT (New York Stage & Film), AND SHE WOULD STAND LIKE THIS (TMTC/ART-NY Theaters), #BARS (Public Theater), AND THEN I WOKE: A VICARIOUS CATACLYSMIC EVENT (ACS/Downtown Art), THE TROJAN WOMEN (Access Theater), MANNA HATA: THE WONDER CITY (Peculiar Works Project), CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA (Workshop Theater Company), HOPE SPEAKS (TMTC), IMMORTAL: THE GILGAMESH VARIATIONS (Bushwick Starr), BINTOU (TMTC), THE CRUCIBLE (PHTS, NYU), FLOW (24 to Life), FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE... (NYU). TV/Film: COVERED (Writer/Director, Best Lockdown Film 2021 Bridgeport Film Festival), EXTRA ROOM, SCRIBBLES, RAIN, KITTY BAINBRIDGE IS DEAD (Reel 5), FOR FLOW (25 to Life/HBO), COLD APRIL (Burning Clown). Cherrye is the playwright of original works HOW TO MOURN AN AMERICAN, SOLD!, and DREAMS IN SCAR SPACE. Her full- length choreopoem TAPES was presented in The Movement Theater Company’s Ladder Series. She is well-known as a musician and lead vocalist for the acclaimed roots-blues experience The Nervous and the hip-hop/funk outfit DeathrowTull.
CATALIN STELIAN
Homepage | Instagram @catalinmedia
Born in Bucharest and based in New York City, CATALIN won a 2021 Bessie Award for the film collaboration Steel Standing, produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As an editor and producer, his film and television projects include BRUTUS, SEASONS TO TASTE, STAN THE MECHANIC, and BEAR CITY 3, and all of A Certain Something’s projects, including EXTRA ROOM, for which he was nominated for Best Editing at the Madrid International Film Festival. The Media Director of SharpLeft Media, he has created music videos for Tom Goss, Eddie Wayne, The Bottom Dollars, and more; his clients include New York Pride, Dallas BBQ, Tony Di Napoli's, Skyy Vodka, Downtown Art, and Josh Cellars. As an actor, his screen work includes the television series NOBODY’S PERFECT, which ran for three acclaimed seasons across Europe, and the films BEARISH, THE DAMNABLE DEPRIVATION OF DMITRI, SKELETON CREW, EXTRA ROOM, HEY BABE, DESPERATE GHOSTS, CHOSEN, and HORSE POWER, which won the 2014 Cottbus Film Festival and was a Golden Paladino Nominee at the Locarno International Film Festival. He is a former company member of the National Jewish Theatre of Romania, and the author of many plays including THE PASSION OF THE DRAMA. Catalin's photography has been seen in galleries and private art collections worldwide.
NILAN
NILAN is a creator, performer, and arts leader. He serves as the Associate Artistic Director of The Drama League, where he recently produced seventeen short films for New Vision/New Voices. His short film POPSICLES is now streaming. He stars in and co-wrote the television series EXTRA ROOM. His play Shadow in the Corner is published in the 3rd volume of Obie Award-winning Harlem 9's 48 Hours in Harlem anthology. His teleplays include THE RECIPE (co-wrote), THE ALPHABETS, RENAISSANCE (co-wrote), and more. His plays include A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE, ENDANGERED SPECIES, FOLKTALES, BLOOD PROMISES, WE LIKE TO PARTY, THE SPECTRUM PLAYS, OUR PRECEDENT, WILLIE RICHARD JOHNSON, AND THEN I WOKE: A VICARIOUS CATACLYSMIC EVENT (co-wrote), and others. His work as a performer has been seen at theaters and film festivals including the Harlem International Film Festival, PlayMakers Repertory, Downtown Art, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Parsnip Ship, Madrid International Film Festival, Recklinghausen Ruhr Festival, Bedlam MadLab, Red Fern Theatre, Playback Berlin, Pridefest, 1MPF, New York Shakespeare Exchange, & others. He co-created CONSENT IS SEXY, a four-episode PSA campaign (YouTube). Member AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and the Black Theatre Network. M.F.A. in Acting from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
AFFILIATED ARTISTS
Erik C. Bruce, Nathaniel P. Claridad, Damion Clark, Alisha Espinosa, Marc Jablonski, Jeffrey James Keyes