Cast & Creative Team Bios
Carey Blackburn (Lily Bart) is a NYC-based performing artist thrilled to be back with Pastiche after Persuasion. New York Theatre: Mystic Pizza (John W. Engeman Theatre), Blanche and Stella (Lenfest Center for the Arts), Pinkalicious (Vital Theatre Company). Regional/International: Mickey and Company (Tokyo Disney Resort), Robin Hood (Florida Studio Theatre), Spring Awakening (Serenbe Playhouse), Macbeth (Thunder Bay Theatre). Grateful always to ATB Talent, ECU MT ’17, and the support of friends and family. www.careyblackburn.com
Yannik Encarnação (Percy Gryce) is delighted to be a part of the House of Mirth Song Cycle and this wonderful cast of creatives. Previous credits include Michael (Tick, Tick,...Boom!), Joseph (Joseph & the Technicolor Dreamcoat), and Slim (Cowboy Mouth). Instagram: @sonic_yannik11
Sean Gregory (Simon Rosedale) is a graduate of Penn State University and the Stella Adler Studio. Recent credits: Don Carlo (Met Opera), The Fountainhead (Austin Shakespeare), Deathtrap (Millbrook Playhouse). Training: SoHo Shakespeare Company. More info: www.seanpgregory.com
Teresa Hui (Bertha Dorset) is a singer-actor-musician from Brooklyn, NY. She is so excited to be part of the House of Mirth Song Cycle! Teresa preciously worked with Emily King on her Jane Austen's Persuasion Song Cycle as Mrs. Smith/Gossip. Her stage credits include Off-Broadway's The Big Bang Theory: A Pop-Rock Musical Parody as Amy Farrah Fowler, and Candide, starring Kristin Chenoweth and Patti Lupone, directed by Lonny Price, which was broadcast on Great Performances on PBS. She has sung with the NY Philharmonic, NY Pops, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Kimmel Center. Teresa has also sung backup for Patti LaBelle and opera singer Denyce Graves. Her TV/Film credits include Helpsters (Apple+TV), Power Book II: Ghost (Starz), The First Wives Club (BET+), Difficult People (Hulu), Seven Seconds (Netflix), Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC), and That's What She Said (starring Anne Heche, Sundance Film Festival). Teresa is a National Anthem Singer for the TCS New York City Marathon, Brooklyn Cyclones, Staten Island Ferryhawks and Westchester Knicks. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Westminster Choir College. Teresa placed 3rd in Amateur Night for Showtime at the Apollo at the Apollo Theatre. You can follow Teresa on Instagram: @rubenbeaut.
Robert M. Johanson (Gus Trenor) is a freelance performer/composer/director in New York City. He is a found-ing member of Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and has performed with them in No Dice, Poetics: a Ballet Brut, Romeo and Juliet, No President, and composed music for and performed in their epic cycle Life and Times: Episodes 1-9, and Burt Turrido: an Opera. Robert has created and composed his own pieces in collaboration with both students and professionals including Life is Hard with Von Krahl Theater, The Loon with Witness Relocation, and is now working on a new music theater piece Hilma with The Wilma Theater. He has worked with many other companies both in New York City and abroad including: Elevator Repair Service, 7 Daughters of Eve, Radiohole, The Civilians, Jim Findlay, Morgan Green, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, and Spreafico Eckly. He is a frequent guest teacher at the Norwegian Theatre Academy, and has giv-en workshops and master classes at Rutgers, Columbia University and MIT. robertmjohanson@gmail.com
Emily King (Edith Wharton) had a modest career as an actor and singer in New York, London, Cardiff, Frankfurt and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, creating roles in new works, mostly musical, Off-Off Broadway and on the London and Edinburgh Fringe. contact@pasticheNYC.com
Mary Jo Mace (Aunt Peniston) spends her days as a minor bean counter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and spends her nights singing with I Cantori New York. She is thrilled and grateful to reveal her true identity as an actress in this production. Thank you, Emily! mjmace@gmail.com
Joseph Parrish (Lawrence Selden) A Baltimore native, he holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School. Recent operatic credits include Dr. Cajus in Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and Augure in Rossi’s L’Orfeo at Juilliard; Spinelloccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Festival Napa Valley, and Le Baron de Pictordu in the City Lyric Opera’s production of Viardot’s Cendrillon. In addition to opera, Mr. Parrish enjoys a robust concert career performing in recital at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Alice Tully Hall, St. Boniface Church in Brooklyn, and Weill, and Zankel Halls at Carnegie Hall. As a soloist he has performed with I Cantori New York, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Church, the Westchester Oratorio Society, and Juilliard 415. This past summer, Mr. Parrish was an apprentice artist at the Santa Fe Opera where he covered the Officer in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. As a current artist diploma candidate in opera studies at the Juilliard School, Mr. Parrish is passionate about giving back to the various communities that have nurtured him. He is a Music Advancement Program chorus teaching fellow, Gluck Community Service Fellow, and Morse Teaching Artist. Mr. Parrish is also a member of the inaugural cohort of Shared Voices, an initiative designed to address diversity, equity, and inclusion through collaboration between Historically Black Colleges and Universities, top conservatories, and schools of music in the United States with the Denyce Graves Foundation. Mr. Parrish recently joined the Young Concert Artists roster and is managed by Christina Baker and Mic Herring. parrishtjoseph@gmail.com
Rebecca Lee Whitcomb (Judy Trenor) Hailing from the land of corn, she grew up simply… with her 9 brothers and sisters, that is. Watching movie musicals from an early age eventually brought her to New York City to study musical theatre performance at AMDA. Since graduation she has had the opportunity to perform on tour, in international waters, regionally, and at Carnegie Hall. becky.whitcomb@yahoo.com
Pianist Shai Zohar, 27, has a diverse career as a performing artist, pedagogue and creator. As a pianist, he toured throughout Europe and North America, in halls including Lincoln Center and Steinway Hall in New York, and has participated in many international festivals such as Aspen (United States) Gingold (United States), Philadelphia Festival at Curtis Academy, Perugia Music Festival in Italy (as performer and a young professor) and others. Shai Zohar has won awards from many national and international competitions such as the Empire State Piano Competition in New York (First Prize), the Princeton Piano Competition in New Jersey (First Prize), the Israeli Ashdod Piano Competition (Second Prize), the North Piano Competition in Stockholm, Sweden ( First prize), the Leopold Blanc piano competition in Paris (Judges' Prize) and more, as well as being a grant recipient by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, the Ronen Foundation and the Zfonot-Tarbut Foundation. Shai is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music, a graduate of the Buchman Mehta Academy of Music in Tel Aviv- where he studied with Prof. Tomer Lev, and a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and Brooklyn College in New York- where he studied with the pianist Alexander Moutouzkine and pianist Ursula Oppens. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emily Duncan (Musical Supervisor & Audio Editor) is an electrifying, innovative musician and producer redefining what it means to be an artist in today’s musical landscape. As a flutist, Emily has performed with The Ambient Orchestra, The New Juilliard Ensemble, AXIOM, and the New York Summergarden Series. Highlights for the 2022 season include "Voces: New Music from Latin America," New Muses Project at Merkin Hall, and Nathalie Joachim’s "Ki moun ou ye" in Lincoln Center. Her sound design and audio engineering work has been featured with Outlet Ensemble's "Brilliant Traces", the Here We Go Festival, Michael Shenefelt's "Heloise" at the 2019 Broadway Bound Festival, and PasticheNYC's Persuasion, which was recorded, mixed, and debuted in quarantine. She is also the creator of Gig Crunch, a web app that aims to combat the exploitative hiring practices freelance performers face by allowing them to check and calculate fair service rates. Emily is a graduate of The Juilliard School. To keep up with Emily's projects, please visit https://www.rebelflute.com.
Kyle Feldman (Video Editor) graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Bard College in 2017, then moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he pursued his passion for multimedia video production at an eLearning production company. Since then, he has taken on a variety of projects and established himself as a multimedia artist, eLearning developer, digital media editor, and content creator. In his spare time, he enjoys the outdoors, traveling with his friends and family, and learning new vegan cooking recipes. KyleAbrahamFeldman@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-abraham-feldman/ Emily King (Lyricist/Director) is an author, translator, editor, actor, director, playwright and lyricist. In her 10 years at RCA Victor, she was privileged to act as the Word Police at 23 Original Cast Recordings with some of the greatest living songwriters. Now retired from her health-insured job as a NYC school secretary, she returns to her own works of decades past. In developing PasticheNYC, she created new ways to recruit first rate performers and great music –and the infinitude of visuals, and sound available in the new technology – to bring new life to Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, and now her own original musical radio series, Grace Under Pressure, in an age of uncertainty, isolation, and hunger for beauty. contact@pasticheNYC.com Ryuichi Sakamoto (Composer) is a world-class musician, composer, actor, eco-activist and human being. For more information please read his biography and visit his website: https://www.sitesakamoto.com/ Tony Torn (Video Editor) is an actor and director who has worked extensively for the past thirty years in theater, film and television, in both traditional and experimental projects. As an editor he has specialised in arranging multiple shots in a single frame, in projects such as The Grand Inquisitor (2006) and Bluefish (2020). Tony currently teaches Intro to Acting at MIT, and manages Torn Page, a private event space in New York City named in honor of his parents, the award winning actors Rip Torn and Geraldine Page. tonytorn@gmail.com