(Playwright and Discussion Facilitator) was awarded the 2006 Pen Drama Prize for his "Devil's Advocate." His plays, prizes, books and films include: "Inquest" (directed by Alan Schneider); "Secret Honor" (directed by Robert Altman); "Circe & Bravo" (with Faye Dunaway, directed by Harold Pinter); "The Quartered :Man"; "Alfred and Victoria (A Life)"; "Veterans Day" (with Jack Lemmon and Michael Gambon); "The White Crow Eichmann in Jerusalem"; three Rockefeller Awards; two Louis B. Mayer Awards; Unicorn Prize; Gold
Medal Award; Berlin Critics Award; NEA Award for "Distinguished Writing," Hollywood Critics Award; Jonathan R. Reynolds Prize. Donald's books include "Agony in New Haven"; "Executive Action" (novel and film with Dalton Trumbo and Mark Lane); "The Glasshouse Tapes"; "The Spymaster" (Book of the Month); "In Search of Common Ground" (with Erik Erikson, Kai Erikson, Huey P. Newton); "The Existentialism of Alberto Moravia" (with Joan Ross); "Death in Washington: The Murder of Orlando Letelier". Donald is a guest artist at the Los Angeles Theatre Center and at York Theatre Royal, York, England. He is an honorary member of the Pacific Resident Theatre in Los Angeles. Upcoming plays include 1951-2006 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in Spring 2010; and to be announced, "Hamlet (in Rehearsal), the American premiere by York Theatre Royal. Recent publications include "Hamlet (in Rehearsal)," Broadway Play Publishing; "Every Third House," Penmarin Books; and "Agony in New Haven," Figueroa Press. Donald's plays are being produced in Italy, France and England in 2010 and 2011, including "The White Crow: Eichmann in Jerusalem," "Devil's Advocate" and "The Einstein Plan."
JAMES CROMWELL
(The Exile) Born in Los Angeles, actor and activist James Cromwell is the son of actress Kay Johnson and John Cromwell, a blacklisted director who served as one of the first presidents of the Director's Guild. His stepmother, Ruth Nelson was a noted stage and film actress and a founding member of the New York Group Theater. He followed in the family footsteps, heading to the south after the Freedom Rides to join the Free Southern Theater; an integrated company that toured the south. He was also a member of
the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and in the seventies, joined the Committee to Defend the Panthers, an organization set up to defend The Panther 13. James has directed at resident theatres across the country and was the founder and Artistic Director of his own company, Stage West, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He also co-directed a short film, which was shown at the London Film Festival. After returning to Hollywood, James received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar ® nomination for his memorable performance as Farmer Hoggett in the smash-hit, “Babe.” Cromwell's recent motion picture work includes “L.A. Confidential,” “Space Cowboys,” Frank Darabont's critically acclaimed “The Green Mile,” “The General's Daughter,” “Snow Falling on Cedars,” “The Bachelor,” “The Sum of All Fears”, DreamWorks SKG's “Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron,” Stephen Fears' Oscar ® nominated film “The Queen,” and Oliver Stone's “W.” He has earned Emmy nominations for his work on the HBO original series, “Six Feet Under,” the HBO movie, “RKO 281,” and the NBC drama, “ER.” Cromwell has also performed in many revered plays, including “Hamlet,” “The Iceman Cometh,” “Devil's Disciple,” “All's Well That Ends Well,” “Beckett” and “Othello” in many of the country's most distinguished theatres, including the South Coast Repertory, the Goodman Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, the American Shakespeare Festival, Center Stage, the Long Wharf Theatre and the Old Globe. He recently played A. E. Houseman in the American premiere of Tom Stoppard's “The Invention of Love” at A.C.T. in San Francisco.
In addition to his work with countless charities, and initiatives, James has served as a board member for both S.A.G. and A.F.T.R.A. and as Secretary Treasurer of S.A.G. He has been collaborating on "The Einstein Plan" since its inception.
DEBRA DE LISO
(The Stage Manager) has been a passionate theatre artist for three decades working as an actor, choreographer, dancer, director, playwright, and teacher. Highlights from Debra's acting career range from playing the title role in a critically acclaimed production of "Agnes of God" at the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, to the physically demanding performance as a Siamese twin in "Air For One", to sparkling reviews of her portrayal of Blanche Dubois in "A Streetcar Named Desire", Lorraine from "Lie of the Mind",
and nominated Best Actress, Garland Awards for "Trust Me". Debra is a member of the Classical Theatre Lab in Los Angeles, and has worked under the direction of Alan Rickman, Lynn Redgrave, and Alfred Molina. Debra received a three year California Arts Council Grant, and taught theatre and dance in a women's medium security prison for three years, She also led a playwriting workshop with a group of “lifers” at San Quentin State Prison. She has taught theatre to “at risk” teens to facilitate their communication through storytelling skills. She is now delighted to share her extensive training (M.A. CSULA, M.F.A. UCLA, and study at the Royal National Theatre, London) with her own theatre students as a faculty member at the USC School of Theatre and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
ADAM LEIPZIG
(Producer) has collaborated with Donald Freed for 25 years, and produced "Secret Honor," "The White Crow: Eichmann in Jerusalem" and "American Illiad." Adam has produced over 300 plays and performance events, was a founder of the Los Angeles Theatre Center. He has held executive positions at Walt Disney Studios and PolyGram Entertainment, and most recently was the president of National Geographic Films. As a producer and executive he has been involved in over 25 films including "Dead
Poets Society," "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," "The Doctor," "Good Morning, Vietnam," "Three Ninjas," "Roommates," "The Associate," "Titus," "The Story of the Weeping Camel," "Amreeka," "March of the Penguins," and Peter Weir's upcoming "The Way Back." Adam was part of the team that made William Mastrosimone's "Bang, Bang, You're Dead" the most performed play in America from 1999-2004, and he's building on that model with "The Einstein Plan."
LORI ZIMMERMAN
(Producer) has helped small and mid-size nonprofit and community organizations develop infrastructure and capacity for growth over the past 25 years. She has held management positions with the Latino Theater Company, Venice Community Housing Corporation and Los Angeles Theatre Center, has served on the Board of The Center for the Study of Political Graphics and the Liberty Hill Foundation, and is a consultant to emerging groups in the Los Angeles region. Lori is currently on the Board of the
18th Street Arts Center and is developing a volunteer college coaching program for high school students at Marshall High. She has a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts and a MBA from the University of Southern California. Lori is happiest working in the intersection of social change, art and building communities.
PATRICIA RAE FREED
(Producer) Entering her 69th year, Patricia has had three careers: Retail, Teaching, and as an Agent/Helpmate, to her husband Donald. This latter endeavor, which began over thirty years ago, is best summed up in the following way: When people ask Patricia at cocktail parties, “What do you do," she answers “Nothing," trying desperately to create the enigmatic dignity of Cordelia. Translated, it means: “Everything." Thus, in one word, characterizing her past, current, and future career. Her wish during her
university years was to become a writer. After fifteen years of selling high fashion to working women, another fifteen teaching psychology to nursing students, she fulfilled her youthful desire by marrying a brilliant playwright. Thus, she never wrote the words echoing in her soul, but married someone who could, and did. Such a life has left little time for anything else; that, and indulging her passion for feeding with generosity and elegance, those she loves, including her dog Emma.
ROBBIE CONAL
(Graphic Image) grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan in New York--his parents were both union organizers who considered the major art museums to be day care centers for him. He attended the High School of Music and Art in New York, got his BFA at San Francisco State University (1969). He was an original hippie, ensconced in the Haight Ashbury in the winter of 1963) and his Masters of Fine Arts degree at Stanford University (1978). In 1984 he moved to Los Angeles. Angered by the
Reagan Administration, he made satirical posters of politicians and bureaucrats who, by his standards, had abused their power in the name of representative democracy. He developed an irregular guerrilla army of volunteers, putting posters up in the streets of major cities around the country. Robbie has made more than 60 posters satirizing politicians from both parties, televangelists and global capitalists. He has also taken on censorship, the Supreme Court's so-called “Gag Rule” —a de facto prohibition of the mention of the word “abortion” by doctors in Federally funded institutions—and environmental issues. Robbie has gained national prominence as the country's premiere street poster artist. His work has been featured on "CBS This Morning," "Charlie Rose" and in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, LA Times and the Washington Post—which has called him, “America's foremost street artist”—The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, People Magazine, Interview, and numerous daily newspapers around the country. He won a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Grant, a Getty Individual Artist Grant and a Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Individual Artist's Grant (COLA). Robbie has authored three books: "Art Attack: The Midnight Politics of a Guerrilla Poster Artist," HarperCollins, 1992, "Artburn," Akashic Books, 2003, and the just published, “Not Your Typical Political Animal,” with Deborah Ross, Art Attack Press, 2009. His recent exhibitions have included a solo exhibit of Robbie's large dancing political skeleton caricatures, “Apocalypso Tango,” at Track 16 Gallery in Bergamot Station, Santa Monica. In October, 2008, Track 16 Gallery mounted the largest exhibit of Robbie's art to date: “NO SPITTING NO KIDDING: 25 Years of Robbie Conal's Paintings & Drawings.” For 12 of the last 15 years Robbie taught painting and drawing in the School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He now teaches life drawing at West LA College. He lives in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles with his wife, Deborah Ross, who is a movie, TV and print designer (www.drfilmdesign.com) and their two cats, Smilla and Bodhisattva. To see more of Robbie's work, please visit www.robbieconal.com
NICO SABENORIO
(PowerPoint presentation and Filmmaker) Nico is a graphic designer turned documentary director. He learned about "The Einstein Plan" while directing a film at National Geographic Films for producer Adam Leipzig and jumped at the opportunity to dust off some old skills and design the projections for this play. As a director Nico has taken on
such subjects as human trafficking, underground fight clubs, and child hunger; worked for clients such as National Geographic, Pepsi and Warner Bros; and his work has recently been seen on CNN and at the Slamdance Film Festival. As a graphic designer Nico has done work for clients such as Bon Jovi, Adam Lambert, Jennifer Lopez and surf legend Laird Hamilton
ERNIE MARJORAM
(Non-violent action illustrations) has been a free-lance illustrator in the entertainment industry since 1995. He has created prop art used on-screen in the feature films "The Thirteenth Warrior" (1999) and "Almost Heroes" (1998), one sheet comps for "The Postman" (1997), trailer storyboards for "Cat in the Hat" (2003), "Core" (2003), "Shaft II, The Sphere" (1998), concept illustrations for premiere parties on "Charlie's Angels II" (2003) and the DVD launch of "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003) as well as in-store advertising art
for "Sherk 2" (2004), "Peter Pan" (2003), "Babe, Pig in the City" (1998) and "Independence Day" (1996). For the last nine years, Ernie has been an Adjunct Faculty member at the American Film Institute and teaches perspective illustration to the Production Design Fellows. Active in creating the design curriculum, defining admissions criteria, establishing the annual Designer's Showcase exhibit and in creating a virtual gallery of Fellow's work on the AFI website, Ernie also served as Chairman Pro Tem of the Production Design department during the academic year 2005-2006. He currently serves on the admissions committee and has participated in the script review process. In 2003, Ernie launched a fine art career and has exhibited his art in multiple group exhibitions at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. He is currently represented by TAG gallery in Bergamot Station. To view examples of Ernie's art, please visit www.erniemarjoram.com.
JOHN ZALEWSKI
(Sound Design) is a sound and visual artist, designer and narrative scorer based in Los Angeles. He's won multiple awards for his work, including Ovations, Garlands, LA Weeklys and even two of the very last Dramalogue Awards. He's a grateful alum of the TCG/NEA Designer Fellowship and has designed and scored for institutions like The Humana Festival, LA Phil, CTG, South Coast Rep, Geffen, Pasadena Playhouse, EWP, LATC, Boston Court, Redcat,
Actors' Gang, Evidence Room, Padua Playwrights, NY Fringe, Lewis Family Playhouse and sundry others in LA and NY.
BILAL NIAZ
(Website Designer) is a programmer, website designer, blogger, entrepreneur, SEO Consultant and the CEO of Qinwan Technologies. Bilal has designed, developed and maintained websites and blogs for businesses of all sizes and individual users. He has also helped dozens of corporate webmasters attract attention to their sites through his Internet marketing and search engine optimization services. Bilal earned a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Sciences from Al-Hajvery University Lahore, Pakistan, in 2000 and has been
a visiting lecturer there since 2005. Bilal is socially engaged and loves helping people. He maintains several websites and blogs assisting people by providing quality training and information on SEO services, SEO process, Link Building, Lead Generation , health care tips, jobs, HR interview questions, gifts and more.
