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MEET THE DESIGNERS | Arden of Faversham

Red Bull Theater's ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher and Kathryn Walat, and directed by Jesse Berger, will have scenic design by Christopher Swader and Justin Swader, lighting design by Reza Behjat, costume design by Mika Eubanks, sound design by Greg Pliska, and prop design by Samantha Shoffner. R. Christopher Maxwell is the production stage manager.



Christopher & Justin Swader (Scenic Design) Selected New York: Seven Deadly Sins (Tectonic Theater Project, Lortel nomination), Seize the King, The Bacchae, Antigone, The Three Musketeers, Macbeth, The Tempest, Dutchman (Classical Theatre of Harlem), Ajijaak on Turtle Island (New Victory), Midnight at the Never Get (York Theatre). Selected Regional: The Tempest (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Our Town (Dallas Theater Center), A Raisin in the Sun (Two River Theater), Radio Golf (Everyman Theatre), Seven Deadly Sins, Elián, One Night in Miami, The Cuban Vote, Fake, Confessions of a Cocaine Cowboy, The Cubans (Miami New Drama) and designs for A$AP Rocky, National Geographic, Big Apple Circus, Sotheby’s.


Mika Eubanks (Costume Design) currently Located in New York, but hailing from Maryland, received her MFA in Costume Design at Yale School of Drama. Her theater design credits include Feeding Beatrice (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); Fires In The Mirror (Baltimore Center Stage/Long wharf Theatre) King Lear starring Andre De Shields (St. Louis Shakespeare Festival); Grand Horizons (Asolo Repertory Theater); Seize The King (Classical Theater of Harlem); Lessons in Survival: 1971 (The Vineyard Theatre); and Twelfth Night (Yale Repertory Theatre), for which she received the Connecticut Critic Circle Award for outstanding costume design. In Film Mika has designed for the short film "Candace" and The Hulu mini series "Initiative 29." Recently she costume assisted on the 2022 Tony award Best Musical A Strange Loop.



Reza Behjat (Lighting Designer) is a freelance lighting designer and visual storyteller based in NYC. He began his career in Iran - where he worked with some prominent directors for several years. Off-Broadway: Good Enemy (Audible), Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons), The Vagrant Trilogy, Out of Time (Public Theater), English (Atlantic Theater), P.S (Ars Nova), Henry VI (NAATCO), Hamlet (Waterwell), and etc. Opera: French Double Bill (Manhattan School of Music), Ritual of Breath (Dartmouth College, Stanford Live), Gianni Schicchi / Buoso's Ghost (Michigan Opera), Scenes of opera (Manhattan School of Music). Awards: Knight of Illumination Award for Nina Simone: Four Women. Drama Desk Awards and multiple Henry Hews Design Awards nominations.


Nina Field (Sound Design) I am a sound designer based in New York. I particularly enjoy working on straight plays, experimental work, and movement pieces. I utilize synthesizers, soundscapes, drones, and ambiences in my design practice. Member of TSDCA & USA 829.Selected Works: Regional: Our Town, (Baltimore Center Stage; Baltimore, MD), Urinetown, The Musical (Northern Stage; White River Junction, VT), Our Town, (Dallas Theater Center; Dallas, TX), Beyond the Fourth Wall (WMPAC; Big Sky, MT), Ms. Bennet, Christmas at Pemberley (Playhouse On Park; West Hartford, CT). Fringe: The Ecstasy of Victoria Woodhull (Owl & Pussycat Theatre Company; shown at Hollywood Fringe, 59E59, & Edinburgh Fringe) New York: The Appointment, (Lightning Rod Theater; NYT Critic’s Choice), The Gospel Woman, (National Black Theatre), The Road Back (Chrysalis Theatre Company), Motel Andromeda (Waterwell), House of American Activities (The After-Image), The View (Columbia U. School of the Arts). Virtual: Murder, We Spoke (Tantrum East). Associate Design: Your Own Personal Exegesis, (LCT3, Designer: Stowe Nelson), Good Enemy, (Minetta Lane, Designer: Mikhail Fiksel), Twelfth Night (Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Designer: Lindsay Jones), Hamlet on the Radio (The Old Globe, Designer: Lindsay Jones).


Greg Pliska (Sound Design & Original Music) is a composer, conductor and orchestrator who previous Red Bull productions include sound and music for The Alchemist, The Government Inspector, Pericles, School for Scandal, and other music bits for various galas and events. Theater: Broadway: War Horse (m.d.), Sylvia (comp.); Off-Broadway: Trevor the Musical (orch.); Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night (orch.), As You Like It (comp./orch.), Comedy of Errors (comp.). Opera: The Secret Garden (comp. w/David Ives). Film: “Trust” (composer); “Manhattan Night”, “Flying Monsters 3D”, “The Infiltrator”, “Beethoven’s Treasure Trail” (orch.). TV: “Life” (Discovery; comp./orch.). Podcast: “Nice Try! Utopian” (music/sound).

Samantha Shoffner (Prop Designer) Broadway: Trouble in Mind, Slave Play (2019, remount, & August Wilson Lobby redesign). Associate Broadway: Children of a Lesser God, The Price, Noises Off, Falsettos, China Doll, Living on Love. Select Off-Broadway: Only Gold, Nollywood Dreams, BLKS (MCC), My Broken Language, A Case...God, Confederates (Signature), To My Girls (2st), Powerstrip (Lincoln Center), Merrily... (Roundabout). Regional: May We All (TPAC), HVSF (2022, 2016). Corporate: Google, Samsung, Grammys, Emmys, H&M, Macy's. Production Design: Dancing Monkey (feature), IBM, NBCUniversal, BMW, Disney's Frozen "True Love" Music Video, Marvel. Assistant Props: As They Made Us (AppleTV+). Professor at Citytech; Props/Paint. Freelance Interior Designer & artist. www.smartsetsbysam.com.


Nathaniel Jones (Hair, Wigs, and Makeup Design) graduated from Dudley Cosmetology University. Following that he obtained his BA in management from Winston-Salem State University. Nathaniel’s remarkable skill-set has given him opportunities to work with productions such as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , Death of a Salesman, Moulin Rouge, Some like it Hot, etc. After years of experience in film and theatre, his design aesthetic has transformed into a clean, edgy and innovative look. Nathaniel recently completed his Masters in Fine Arts at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.



R. Christopher Maxwell (Production Stage Manager) Harlem resident who aspires to center the voices of marginalized communities and advance the work of other Queer artists and the Diaspora of Black Americans. As a new member of Equity he seeks to create space and opportunity for unseen artists.










For complete details about Red Bull Theater's production ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM, visit here. This strictly-limited 4-week engagement will run March 6-April 1, 2023 at the Lucille Lortel Theater, NYC.


It’s Valentine’s Day and Alice Arden wants her husband dead. He’s come into money and all she can think about is her lover, Mosby. So, the pair enter into a pact to murder Arden and engage a cluster of killers to do the deed. If only they weren’t so spectacularly inept. Inspired by actual events, this sexy thriller of unknown authorship – some say, Shakespeare – is a bloody, darkly comic Elizabethan noir.


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