Red Bull Theater, in association with Fiasco Theater, present THE KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE, by Francis Beaumont. Directed by Noah Brody and Emily Young, the production will feature Jessie Austrian, Royer Bockus, Tina Chilip, Paul L. Coffey, Devin E. Haqq, Teresa Avia Lim, Darius Pierce, Ben Steinfeld, Paco Tolson, and Tatiana Wechsler.
ABOUT THE ACTORS
Jessie Austrian (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate-theater-maker, educator and parent. She is a co-founder and co-artistic director of Fiasco Theater. Broadway: The Importance of Being Earnest, Lend Me a Tenor. Off-Broadway: Merrily We Roll Along, Cymbeline, Into the Woods, Measure for Measure, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Regional: lots. TV: a little. Directing: Ken Ludwig’s Sherwood, Playmakers Rep; Two Gentlemen of Verona, Folger and Theater for a New Audience; The Imaginary Invalid, Old Globe. She teaches at Fiasco’s Conservatory and NYU Gallatin. BA & MFA Brown University.
Royer Bockus (she/her) Recently: Workshop of Diamond Alice with Fiasco. In six seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Helen in All’s Well That Ends Well; Emily in Revenge Song;Laurey in Oklahoma!; Jaquenetta in Love’s Labor’s Lost; Rapunzel in Into the Woods (OSF, Wallis Annenberg Center); Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew; ensembles of Hairspray, My Fair Lady, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Other theaters: Peter Pan, A Play;The Little Prince (Lookingglass Theatre Company); Oklahoma!;A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Trinity Repertory Company); Fly By Night (Jungle Theatre). Northwestern University grad.
Tina Chilip Off-Broadway credits include Fiasco’s Twelfth Night (Classic Stage Company); A Delicate Balance (Transport Group); Mothers (Playwrights Realm); Golden Child (Signature Theater); House Rules, Flipzoids (Ma-Yi Theater); A Dream Play (NAATCO). Regionally she has performed at The Old Globe, Huntington Theatre, Guthrie, Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Portland Center Stage, Berkeley Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, Trinity Rep, and others. TV: “Jessica Jones,” “It's Bruno,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Good Fight,” “Elementary,” “Deception,” “Madam Secretary.” Film: Miguel Wants to Fight. Training: MFA, Brown/Trinity Rep. Company member of Fiasco Theater, and The Actors Center.
Paul L. Coffey Off-Broadway: Merrily We Roll Along and Into the Woods at Roundabout Theatre Co., Twelfth Night at Classic Stage Co., The Two Gentlemen of Verona at Theatre for a New Audience and Cymbeline at TFANA/Barrow Street Theatre. Regional theater: Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe, McCarter Theatre Center, Long Wharf Theater, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Trinity Repertory Co., Berkshire Theatre Festival, Vineyard Playhouse, The Theater at Monmouth, Peterborough Players. Film: Late Night and The Jew of Malta. Television: “Blue Bloods.” Other theater: Into the Woods at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory. Additional Credits: Paul is a graduate of the Brown/Trinity MFA Acting Program, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and a company member of Fiasco Theater.
Devin E. Haqq is an Emmy-nominated producer, a member of the Roundabout Directors Group Cohort 4, a member of the Fiasco Theatre Acting Company, an IFP alumni, and a Finalist for the 2020 HBOAccess Directing Fellowship. He has appeared Off-Broadway at the Barrow Group, Epic Theatre Ensemble, HERE Arts Center, BRIC Arts Media, and in the New York premiere of David Harrower's Knives in Hens at 59E59 Theaters (NY Times Critic’s Pick). He's appeared in numerous regional theater productions including Fiasco Theatre's Measure for Measure (Actor's Theatre of Louisville) and As You Like It (Arden Theatre). Devin has narrated documentaries for Lion TV, Disney Studios, and the PBS series “NOVA.” And during the playoffs, lends his voice to the NFL and the NBA.
Teresa Avia Lim. Broadway: Ayad Akhtar's Junk at Lincoln Center. Other works: Snow in Midsummer at Classic Stage, The Alchemist at Red Bull Theater, Once Upon a Korean Time with Ma-Yi Theater, Caesar & Cleopatra for Gingold Theatrical Group; Shakespeare in the Park's all female production of Taming of the Shrew, NAATCO's Awake and Sing!, Macbeth and Call and Response with the Mobile Shakespeare Unit at the Public Theatre. Teresa originated her roles in Peerless,Water by the Spoonful, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, and Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West. TV/Film: “Bupkis,” “Monsterland,” “The Code,” “Ray Donovan,” “Blue Bloods,” “Limitless,” “Unforgettable,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” and Monster. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and an inaugural recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Scholarship
Darius Pierce is overjoyed to work with Fiasco Theater and Red Bull Theater for his Off-Broadway debut. Regionally, he has performed at Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth (world premiere of Stupid F%&king Bird), Folger Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Broadway Rose Theatre Company, Portland Playhouse, and more. He is a co-founder of the Anonymous Theatre Company and a company member at Third Rail Repertory Theatre. Film/TV credits include Pig, Timmy Failure, “Leverage,” “Grimm,” “The Librarians,”“Documentary Now!,” and others.
Ben Steinfeld Broadway: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Cyrano de Bergerac. For Fiasco as actor and director: Into the Woods (Roundabout/London’s Menier Chocolate Factory/Old Globe/McCarter); Cymbeline (TFANA/Barrow Street Theatre); Measure for Measure (New Victory/Long Wharf); Twelfth Night (CSC); Merrily We Roll Along (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Public Theater; One Thousand Nights and One Day (Prospect/ART-NY); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (co-director, TFANA/Folger). Additional regional: Williamstown, Westport, Trinity Rep. Film/TV: HBO’s Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, “The Good Wife,” “The Deuce,” “Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” “Law & Order: CI.” Training: Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program.
Paco Tolson Fiasco productions include Twelfth Night (Classic Stage Company) and Measure for Measure (Actor’s Theater of Louisville) as well as workshops of Diamond Alice, A Streetcar Named Desire, Pericles, The Lucky Chance, Imogen Says Nothing and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Paco recently led the world premiere of kimber lee’s to the yellow house at La Jolla Playhouse. Collaborations on new work with Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, Ma-Yi, Playwrights Horizons, Two River Theatre, Vampire Cowboys, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and South Coast Rep. Film and TV: “Billions,” “Law & Order: Organized Crime,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Prodigal Son,”“Search Party,” “The Good Fight,” “Madam Secretary,” “Happy!,” “The Code,” and 7 Day Gig.
Tatiana Wechsler is a Brooklyn based actor, singer/songwriter, and creative. Fiasco: Pericles, readings of Diamond Alice and Imogen Says Nothing. Broadway: Mr. Saturday Night. Off-Broadway/NYC: X: Or Betty Shabazz V. The Nation, Julius Caesar, Othello (The Acting Company), The Golden Bride (National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene). Regional: first woman to play Curly in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, Love’s Labor’s Lost (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), world premiere of Love in Hate Nation (Two River Theatre), Benny & Joon (Paper Mill Playhouse), The Legend of Georgia McBride (Marin Theatre Company). Film: award-winning short film Netuser. Many readings, workshops, and concerts, including solo show Dusk at 54 Below. BFA: NYU.
For complete details about Red Bull Theater & Fiasco's production of THE KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE, visit here. This strictly-limited 4-week engagement will run April 17-May 13, 2023 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, NYC.
A joyful celebration of the universal capacity to improvise, this delightful Elizabethan comedy is a rough and rowdy romp. As a group of players gathers to present a play about the elopement of star-crossed lovers, they are abruptly interrupted by a grocer and his wife. They have a different kind of play in mind–an outrageous hero’s quest of derring-do…The Knight of the Burning Pestle. And they know just the fellow to star–their apprentice, Rafe. This new subplot–invented on the fly–takes over the stage in surprising and disruptive ways. Everyone shares in the triumph of love and the singular, anything-can-happen adventure that is live theater.