about

The Miranda Theatre Company, founded in 1989, has developed and presented over 30 NY and world premiere of plays by writers that include Adam Bock, Cusi Cram, Jeff Daniels, Bronwen Denton Davis, Israel Horovitz, Laurel Ollstein, Adam Seidel and Emily Whitesell.

A not-for-profit organization is dedicated to the development and production of new plays that offer hope, while they explore the challenges that face us both as individuals and as member of the global community. With this kind of work, we believe that theatre has the power to transform and inspire audiences to work for a future that embraces positive change. Their annual Liz Smith Reading Series celebrates Women’s History every March.

VALENTINA FRATTI

ARTISTIC & PRODUCING DIRECTOR

VALENTINA FRATTI Co-founded The Miranda Theatre Co in 1989. She most recently directed Adam Seidel’s Williston and They Promised Her the Moon by Laurel Ollstein. Other credits include: the NYTimes' Critics Pick, Catch the Butcher by Adam Seidel (Cherry Lane Theatre); Snow Orchid, (Lion Theatre), R.U.R., (Beckett), Two Brothers, (Theatre for the New City), The Other Day by Mark Jason Williams (Robert Moss Theater); The Green Manifesto by Anne Berlin and Andy Cohen (Minetta Lane, fingenyc); By the same team, Revolution, Love Stinks (SPF Abridged Festival, Public Theatre); Little Drummer and Rocky’s First Christmas and Pocket Change. Howling Hilda by Anne Berlin and Andrew Bleckner (Robert Moss Theatre and the York Theater with Mary Testa) and The Pigeon Boys also by Berlin and Bleckner (Barrow Group NYMF); Charles Duncombe’s Patriot Act (Castillo Theatre); Jeff Daniels’ Apartment 3A; Young Playwrights Festivals at the Cherry Lane Alternative and the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Playwrights Horizons.

For Miranda Theater Co, credits include The Book of Wren, Innocent Thoughts, Prostitutki and Near Normal. Readings include Ginna Carter’s Traffic School with Elaine Stritch and Carla Cooks the War with Lynne Cohen. Her plays include Unearthed, The Male Appetite, Jerusalem Mountain, and Shooting Medea. She worked with commercial producer Jane Harmon and was the Associate Producer on the Broadway production of Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Tony Award, Best Play). She has been on the faculty at the New School for Drama and received the Alice Kaplan Guest Artists Residency at Northwestern University. She is a member of Actors Equity Association, Society of Directors and Choreographers, The Lincoln Center Director’s Lab.

Sara Donnes

Associate Producer

Sara Donnes is a producer and sometimes performer based in New York City. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, she is an alumna of St. John’s University in Queens where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. In addition to her work onstage, Sara has served as the Business Assistant for Manhattan Theatre Club, and is currently the Finance Associate for Second Stage Theater. Sara is deeply honored to join in Miranda Theatre Company's mission to develop new works.

MO DICHTER

Liz Smith Reading Series Coordinator

Mo Dichter is a writer, actor and producer who is a current BFA dramatic arts candidate at The New School for Drama. Originally from Philadelphia, Mo splits her time between there and New York. Currently she is working on producing a one-act festival at The New School for Drama. She has served at the coordinator for the Liz Smith Reading Series since 2019.

SOPHIE PARENS

ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE

SOPHIE PARENS is a director, actor, and writer currently pursuing her BFA in dramatic arts at The New School for Drama. Select directing credits include Catch the Butcher (Assistant Director to Valentina Fratti, The Cherry Lane Theatre), Helpless Plastic (Manhattan Repertory Theatre), The Loneliness of the College Dropout (Manhattan Repertory Theatre), Trying to find Chinatown (The New School for Drama), The Man Who Couldn’t Dance (The New School for Drama), and The Most Relevant Piece of Theatre in All of North America (The People's Improv Theatre). She is currently directing Race at The New School for Drama.

ERIN BRADFORD

SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR & WEBSITE DESIGNER

ERIN BRADFORD is an actor, writer, and web designer residing in NYC. NY Theatre: Young Pilgrims, The #MeToo Plays, The Last Blueberry on Earth, Dark Down Deep. Regional and Educational Theatre (select credits): The Cherry Orchard, This Property is Condemned, The Write Stuff (Florida Studio Theatre), The Boy who Liked Pulling Hair (Florida Studio Theatre), Hansel and Gretel (Jean’s Playhouse), The Little Mermaid (Jean’s Playhouse), Cinderella (Roebuck Theatre Co), FST Improv (Florida Studio Theatre). She is a recent graduate of Muhlenberg College and is currently working on a new web series that she has written. www.ErinBradford.net @3rinBradford

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ANNE BERLIN

ANNE BERLIN works at CBS Corporation as an Executive Assistant to the Senior Vice President of Corporate Real Estate. Prior to joining Real Estate Anne worked in CBS Corporate Legal for three and a half years. Before that she freelanced in the executive offices of CBS Corporation for over ten years including the Presidents of Sales, Press & Communications, Marketing & Human Resources.

Her work as a playwright and lyricist includes a solo musical, Howling Hilda, about The Brooklyn Dodgers’ greatest fan, starring Tony Nominee Mary Testa which Miranda presented as a workshop at The York Theatre 2014-2015. Also developed at the York, was her musical The Pigeon Boys, co sponsored by the Jim Henson Foundation. Other work includes Charlei Chan and the Mysterious Salami, Ripcords, The Green Manifesto, Love Stinks, Pocket Change and REVOLUTION! presented at numerous NY venues including nyfringe at the Minetta Lane, SPF at the Public Theatre, NYMF and Planet Connections Festivity. Her play La Strega won Outstanding Overall Production for a staged reading at The Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Anne is a proud member of ASCAP.

VALENTINA FRATTI (See Bio Above)

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN

CYNTHIA MCFADDEN has been recently appointed the Senior Legal and Investigate Correspondent for NBC News. For the past 20 years, she traveled the world reporting awards including the Emmy, the Peabody, the DuPont and the Foreign Press Award. For nearly the past decade she was the co-anchor of the celebrated news broadcast, Nightline.

A graduate of the Columbia University School of Law. Mcfadden is known for her incisive reporting on a wide range of legal topics. Much of her work has been investigate focusing on human rights abuses, particulary those faced by women and children. She filed ground-breaking reports on the international trafficking of children in India and women from the former Soviet Union. Recently, she investigated hate groups in America in her Emmy-nominated report on the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. She has interviewed a variety of world leaders including many heads of state while reporting from a wide variety of hot spots around the world including Haiti, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, El Salvador, Rwanda, Pakistan, India, Russia, Cuba, Liberia, and China. Her celebrity interviews have displayed a lighter touch, providing unique insights to a wide variety of entertainers from Madonna, Cher, Beyonce and Bono to Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul McCartney and George Clooney. A native of Maine, McFadden resides in New York City with her teenage son.

PENNELL SOMSEN

PENNELL SOMSEN has worked as an actor, playwright and director with theaters all over the country including Miranda, where she served as Miranda’s Literary manager from 1995-1997. She then moved on to the game of bridge where she became a Life Master and director and worked at the Culbertson Bridge Club (another one of those old vanished New York places). She is presently a free-lance Spanish to English literary translator who is published in various literary journal.

EMILY WHITESELL

EMILY WHITESELL is a writer and producer currently, serving as executive producer of Siren. She is best known for her television work on Once and Again, Life Unexpected, Dirty Sexy Money, American Dreams, LA Doctors, and Crossing Jordan, as well as the upcoming Unstrung. Her play, The Brooch, starring Celeste Holm, premiered at The Miranda Theatre Company.