The 20/21 Season: November Digital Theatre Festival

Tom Alan Robbins

Playwright

TOM ALAN ROBBINS is best known as an actor, having appeared in eight Broadway shows, including The Lion King for which he created the role of Pumbaa.

Other Broadway Shows: Head Over Heels (Dametas), Newsies, Sunset Boulevard, Jerome Robbins Broadway,Threepenny Opera, Once Upon a Mattress, Is He Dead?. He played Thenardier in the first national tour of Les Misérables.

Off-Broadway: Little Shop of Horrors (2020 revival, Mushnick), Brooklynite, On The Verge New York Premiere), Isn’t It Romantic (World Premiere), The Cradle Will Rock, The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket (World Premiere), Henry V (Public Theatre), King Lear (Cornwall). Regional: The Whale(Charlie, World Premiere), “Midsummer Nights Dream” (Bottom), Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye), The Producers (Franz). Man of La Mancha (Sancho). My Name is Asher Lev, Taming of the Shrew (Tranio). Encores: 1776, Music in the Air, Pardon My English, Tenderloin.

Training: The Juilliard School, The Acting Company

He has been on television shows including, Seinfeld,NYPD Blue, Law & Order and Baby Talk (As series regular Dr.Elliot Fleisher).

His first play, “The Joke the Rabbit Told Me” won the NAAA Playreading competition in London and received a reading at the Tristan Bates Theatre in the West End. His play, “Muse”, won the 2019 New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest and received a reading at the Playroom Theatre in New York. His play “The Amish Girls Guide to Armageddon” won honorable mention in the 2020 Mixing it Up Spring Emerging PlaywrightsCompetition. He began his writing career as the staff writer for an Off-off-broadway political cabaret called, “Issue? I Don't Even Know You!”. He went on to write for the daytime drama, “Search For Tomorrow” and the sitcom“Coach”.

Mary Testa

MARY TESTA is the recipient of the Legend of Off-Broadway Award, Three Tony nominations,two Lucille Lortel nominations, six Drama Desk nominations, two Drama League nominations, two Outer Critic’s Circle nominations, and an Obie Award. In recognition of three decades of outstanding work on the New York stage, she was honored with the 2012 Drama Desk Award, which also singled out her bravura performance in Michael John LaChiusa’s Queen of the Mist.

She most recently appeared on Broadway in a critically-acclaimed performance as Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!Her other Broadway credits include Wicked, Guys and Dolls, Xanadu,Chicago, 42nd Street, Marie Christine, On the Town, ...Forum,The Rink, Marilyn and Barnum.

Off-Broadway, Mary appeared in the St Ann’s Warehouse production of Oklahoma!, The Portuguese Kid, The Government Inspector, First Daughter Suite, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Queen ofthe Mist, Love Loss and What I Wore A New Brain, See What I Wanna See, and many more.

She won three Best Actress awards at various festivals for the short film The Mother, and appeared on-screenin films including Big Stone Gap, Eat Pray Love, The Bounty Hunter, The Out-of-Towners, and Sleepers.

‍On Television, she has recurred on series including Divorce, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, and Whoopi.Her guest stars include  The Good Fight, Almost Family, SMILF,Bull, Difficult People, Two Broke Girls, White Collar, Nurse Jackie, The Electric Company, Cashmere Mafia, Sex and the City, Lawand Order and many others.

Mary has sung with many of the leading symphony orchestras in the country, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Philly Pops, Minnesota Orchestra, and the St. LouisSymphony. She also appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the US Premiereof Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera, Anna Nicole.

Featured on fourteen original cast albums, Mary's album with Michael Starobin, Have Faith, is now available.

Wesley Taylor

Theatre World Award Winner, Chita Rivera Award Winner, and Outer Critics Circle Nominee.

Broadway: Spongebob Squarepants (original cast), The Addams Family (original cast), Rock of Ages (original cast). 

Denver Center: An Act of God. Signature Theatre: Cabaret. Second Stage: Little Miss Sunshine. American Conservatory Theater: Tales of the City. TV: "Smash," "The Good Wife," "The Tomorrow People," "One Life to Live,""Looking," "I'm Dying up Here," "Difficult People,”and “The Spongebob Musical: Live on Stage.” 

Co-Creator/Writer/Starof "Indoor Boys," (2019/2020 Indie Series Awards for BestComedy) and "It Could Be Worse," (acquired by Hulu/ParticipantMedia/Pivot TV). BFA: North Carolina School of the Arts.

Dakin Matthews

Broadway: Henry IV, A Man For All Seasons, The Best Man, Rocky, Waitress, The Audience, The Iceman Cometh, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Off-Broadway: Freedomland, The Hostage, TheSchool For Scandal, Measure for Measure, All’s Well That Ends Well. Encores: Where’s Charley, Brigadoon.

Regional: over 230 stage productions.

Film: 30 films, including Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, True Grit. TV: 250 appearances, including Gilmore Girls, King of Queens, Desperate Housewives.

Mr. Matthews is also a member of the Motion Picture and Television Academies, and an award-winning playwright, translator, dramaturge, director, and teacher.

Helen Cespedes

(She/Her) Broadway: The Cripple of Inishmaan.

Off-Broadway:Fefu and Her Friends and Timon of Athens (TFANA), Paul Swan is Dead and Gone (Civilians), The School For Scandal (Red Bull), A Picture of Autumn (The Mint).

Regional credits include Doug McGrath’s world premiere adaptation of The Age of Innocence directed by Doug Hughes(McCarter/Hartford), Taking Steps (Barrington Stage Co.), The Women of Padilla (Two River), the world premiere of José Rivera's Another Wordfor Beauty (Goodman Theatre and NYSF), The Importance of Being Earnest (Williamstown and The Old Globe).

Film/TV: The Way I Remember It, TheKnick. Helen trained at The Juilliard School where she received the John Houseman Prize.