Meet The Team
The Cast
Yan
JANETTE LUU
Janette Luu is new to Iowa City after moving from Toronto with her husband and daughter. A former broadcast journalist, Janette works in retirement marketing for Transamerica. She is thrilled to be supporting the New Play Festival and is grateful to the cast and crew for this exciting opportunity to return to the stage.
Ouyang
ALYSSA BENITEZ
Alyssa Benitez is a first year MFA actor from Fresno, California. Her favorite past credits include Eliza in Tom & Eliza, Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Carlo in At The Wedding. She is grateful to have been a part of the development of Xiaoyan's show and hopes you enjoy it!
Ling Ling
ROXY GLAVE
Roxy Glave is a second-year screenwriting and theater arts major. She performed this semester in Grown Backwards (Laura) and last semester in another student workshop called The (T-)Re(x)formation. In the past she’s been in other shows such as Reflections (April), Into the Woods and American Rusałki (Esther). She’s very excited to be involved in such an amazing story, and grateful to be a part of Xiaoyan’s thesis. The process to build and further develop this show has been so insightful and she couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it. She would like to thank the cast and crew who put so much time and effort into it and hopes you enjoy!
Han
JOSH SAZON
Josh Sazon has worked on a number of productions in the area, both onstage and off. He has performed most frequently on the University of Iowa stages on Global Express, a series of readings that had showcased the work of participants in the International Writer’s Program.
Meiye
EMMA SCHROEDER
Emma Schroeder is a recent university graduate. She has acted in several productions and readings, her most recent being Home is Where the TV Is (Eric), Men On Boats (Hawkins), directing The Worst Supervillain in the World, and And the Past Remains. She thanks the cast and crew for creating something spectacular for people to see. She's excited to be back and acting with the university again, and hopes everyone enjoys the show!
The Creative Team
Playwright
XIAOYAN KANG
Born and raised in China, Xiaoyan Kang is finishing her MFA at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her play The Words of Ants has been selected by and under development with The Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series and Great Plains Theatre Commons. She is a Jane Chambers Award runner-up, Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award finalist, BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition Regional Winner (Americas), Sewanee Writers' Conference Horton Foote Scholar, KCACTF V Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award recipient, two-time O’Neil semifinalist and The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals alum. She is very grateful for her family, friends, mentors as well as the people and stories she encountered along the way. She also wants to thank her beautiful team and cast for putting this special play on stage for the first time. 最后，谢谢外婆和妈妈赋予我爱他人、爱世界的能力；谢谢妈妈一次次陪我去江永；谢谢劉斐玟老师以及江永的何艳新、吴龙玉和谭玉婷老师给予我那么大的善意和信任。谢谢你们让我成为更勇敢、更细腻的创作者。
Director
MEREDITH G. HEALY
Meredith is a second-year directing candidate at the University of Iowa. Originally from Lexington, KY, Meredith made her way to Iowa by way of Wellesley, MA; Providence, RI; and Portland, ME. As a director focused on the development of new works, Meredith is thrilled to be working with the cast and creative team to bring this story to life! During her first year, she directed Brother-Brother by Sixtus Chetachi Igbokwe for the Gallery Series and Anti-Hero: Revenge of the Swifties by Derick Edgren Otero for the Iowa New Play Festival. This year, she directed Far Away as part of the Iowa Director's Festival and was the dramaturg and assistant director for Marie Antoinette. Meredith would like to thank her family for their unwavering support!
Dramaturg
ANI JILAVYAN
Ani is from Yerevan, Armenia and graduated from the University of Iowa’s MFA in Literary Translation. She was one of the editors of Exchanges, an online journal of literary translation, and currently she is a Translator Intern at Global Ties Iowa. Her translations were published in Wasafiri, Granish, and Epress. She will start her MFA in Dramaturgy this fall. She is thankful to Dr. Borecca, Xiaoyan, and Meredith for the opportunity to join the team! She hopes you enjoy exploring this website she put together!
Stage Manager
ABBIE TALKEN
Abbie is a third-year undergraduate theatre arts major with focuses in stage management and technical theatre, and with a minor in computer science. She has previously stage managed the University of Iowa's production of THE (T-)RE(X)FORMATION and assistant stage managed Borderless: Big Ballroom Extravaganza, Tom & Eliza, and & Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens. She is incredibly grateful for the never-ending support she receives from her friends, family, and cats.
Scenic Designer
CHLOE COBB
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Costume Designer
CHELSEA ANN
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Lighting Designer
MEREDITH ONIONS
Meredith Onions is a junior studying informatics. Her prior work includes workshop productions The Space Between Coke Bottles and Orange Slices, UH-OH!, When You Read This, and Grown Backwards, as well as the gallery production of The Obituary. For NPF last year, she designed the lights for Spells for Going Forth by Daylight. She is thankful for her family and her friends. Meredith has had an incredible time working on The Words of Ants, and she hopes you enjoy the show!!
Assistant Stage Manager
JAZMIN WESTLIND
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Assistant Costume Designer
ELLA MAINVILLE
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